The Central Bank telex

In 1967, Rio de Janeiro was still, in fact, the capital of Brazil, although by law Brasília had already been so since 1960. The federation was restructuring itself and the BC - Central Bank of Brazil had recently been created, replacing the then SUMOC - Superintendency of Currency and Credit (which included the Mint).

The first headquarters of the BC was the building at Av. Pres. Vargas 84, on the north corner with Rua 1º de Março, in downtown Rio (Candelária), where, among others, DIMAP, the Division of Material and Patrimony, was installed (bureaucrats love acronyms). This DIMAP was important because it needed to implement everything, from the machines to mint coins and print banknotes, through the plates to make coins, the paper and special inks, the day-to-day printed forms, the chairs and tables, the lamps, the air-conditioning units, the fans, the typewriters, the cars (bureaucrats love luxury and think of themselves as a caste apart), soap and toilet paper, acquisition and renovation of buildings, in short, everything.

But that was not all, DIMAP also took care of the outsourced personnel, hired for cleaning, general services (coffee, messengers and drivers) and security with armed and unarmed guards, for the buildings, for the custody and transport of cash money and for bodyguards for directors, without which they did not feel powerful.

It was at that time that electric typewriters and calculators began to appear, fax machines, communications by waves, antennas and satellites, until then the exclusive domain of wires, underwent a great evolution, that is, advances in electronics began to dominate data transmissions and correspondence, until then the domain of telegraph wires and physical mail (letters).

Recruiting and training personnel, which was already a problem in itself because of the size of the thing, became an even greater problem because of the almost daily novelties brought by IBMs, Burroughs, Olivettis, Remingtons, Panasonics (the Japanese arriving), FACIT, Siemens and others I do not remember).

But the arrival of TELEX marked an era. It was an electric typewriter controlled remotely, with a perforated little tape that recorded everything and could write everything again. They quickly separated the printer from the keyboard and the paper could be a 100 m strip, called continuous form, perforated where the pages were cut. Or sheet by sheet. Even A3 drawings could be made using programming and analogies. The President was in Brasília and his letter or meeting minutes were printed anywhere in the world where there was a similar machine (with the same operating code). At first an IBM only spoke with an IBM and so on, but quickly someone put order in the house and they standardized it.

As the machines were expensive, they created telex rooms, where transmissions and receptions were concentrated, optimizing the use of the available equipment. These rooms were practically glass aquariums displayed to visitors as state-of-the-art in technology and importance, where people worked in a true frenzy, because even what did not need to pass through there began to pass through, since the little bosses of anything thought it gave prestige. In that building at Av. Pres. Vargas 84, a “telex aquarium” was set up on the ground floor, at the back of the elevator hall, so that everyone could see it.

The building closed daily at 10 p.m. and, for security reasons, only opened the next day at 6 a.m., when the armed security shift relieved the previous one. On weekends there was a rotation every eight hours. This routine went on without mishaps, until, on a Monday, at 6 o’clock in the morning, the shift that was inside did not appear to be relieved by the arriving shift team. The fire department, the police, ambulances, etc. were called to break down the door and see what had happened to the two security guards who had done the shift from Sunday to Monday. They were two employees, one recently hired and the other more experienced. What could have happened? When the building was invaded by the rescue team, it was noticed that there had been a shootout in the telex room on the ground floor, with the glass of the “aquarium” destroyed and bullets embedded everywhere. The “taking” of the building was cinematic, floor by floor, all the way to the top floor, the presidency.

Fortunately, the two “guards-security men” were there, alive and uninjured, locked in the president’s office, terrified, not knowing what to do. It fell to Diniz and Benoliel, from DIMAP, to conduct the investigation.

It seems that after the change of guard, the older guard decided to take a nap somewhere upstairs. The younger guard, newly arrived from Feira de Santana, with several shooting and hierarchy courses, as well as many beliefs in the beyond, heard someone typing and went to investigate who might have stayed hidden, probably to do some private work, working at midnight in that silence, thinking no one would notice. Seeing the keys moving with no one there, he concluded that it was a ghost (the Olivetti telex machines really gave that impression) and, without hesitation, unloaded all the ammunition he had until the telex stopped, and went to wake his companion.

When they concluded what had happened, they were ashamed to present themselves to the public.

The security company was disqualified for inadequate HR in selection and training. DIMAP had to buy four more telex machines. Life goes on.

Note for the record: I worked at DIMAP of the BC from mid-1966 to mid-1969 as a civil servant hired through public examination. I resigned to become an engineering intern at Montreal Engenharia.

Miguel Fernández y Fernández, engineer, chronicler and columnist, member of the National Academy of Engineering and of the Institute of Engineering # written between 2013/Jun 25, 2023 R2026 Jan Ra, 5,330 characters.