What's a Telex?

A telex is like a super fast letter that travels through wires instead of going by mail.

Imagine you have a best friend who lives far away, and you want to tell them something right away. Instead of writing a letter and waiting for the mail truck to come, you use a special phone-like machine called a teletype. It sends your message as little dots and dashes over telephone lines, and another teletype on the other end turns those dots and dashes back into letters so your friend can read them instantly.

• You type your message on one side.
• The telex machine changes each letter into a secret code of numbers (like a special language).
• This code travels through wires, like a long telephone line.
• When it gets to the other end, the machine turns the numbers back into letters so someone else can read them.

It’s kind of like sending a message through a tunnel that goes all the way to your friend’s house, but much faster than waiting for the mail!