There is not much that I can add to Art Reblitz's account of the
Auto-typist and Otto Schulz.  I was the Auto-typist dealer here in San
Antonio from the early 1970's until the company went out of business.

The Auto-typist could be used with almost any make of typewriter.  When
you ordered a new machine from the factory you specified what make of
typewriter was to be installed and an installation kit was shipped to
fit that particular make.  Frequently the linkage between the pneu-
matics and the keyboard had to be changed to accommodate different makes
of typewriters.

A good operator could use five machines at a time.  I had one account,
a fund raising organization, that had ten machines manned by two
operators.  Each would start a letter in machine #1, typing the inner
address by hand using previously typed envelopes.  Then the Auto-typist
would begin and pause for the salutation, which was usually written in
pencil on the inside flap of the envelope.

Once the machine started the body of the letter the operator moved
on to machine #2.  By the time she had started machine #5, #1 was ready
to type a new letter.  In this particular case the letters were signed
using Autopens, which may still be made; I do not know.

I have all my old factory service manuals, tubing blueprints and other
materials.  If I can help anyone who has one of these wonders of the
past please let me know.  I still have a selector roll machine in the
warehouse.  I do not have the heart to dispose of it.  It is complete
with hookup harness for a IBM Selectric typewriter.

Auto-typist also made test equipment for National Cash Register
Company.  They were pneumatic and roll operated.  As each manual cash
register came off of the assembly line it was placed in the test
machine and the roll started.  It tested each key and function of the
register automatically.  The four-lobe pumps were replaced near the end
of production with piston pumps resembling air compressors, only rigged
for vacuum.  There was pneumatic test equipment for adding machines and
other business products.  The factory was on Pulaski Road in Chicago,
at the end.

In the early 1940's into the 1950's the Auto-typist was modified into
a fortune telling machine that was coin operated.  I believe it was
called the Lodde Fortune Teller.  There used to be one in the arcade
at Santa Cruz Seaside Corporation in Santa Cruz, California.  They used
manual typewriters and had very large accordion pneumatics to work the
carriage return.

Ed Gaida

 [ Bowers' Encyclopedia, page 660, has a letter written by Otto Schulz
 [ describing his first Auto-typist sale.  The customer told him,
 [ "If we can turn a dial and get the letter we want, the way we dial
 [ radio stations, we'll be interested."  -- Robbie