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Italian-made Olivetti teleprinter of the 1970s. Metal brown frame. On the top are the paper input sockets and a glass cover. In the front are a keyboard for composing messages and the function keys. In 1960, Olivetti started working on its new generation teleprinters which would be known as Te 300. The idea derived from the need to provide a product not only used in specific environments, such as post offices, but intended for use in the business world offering not only message transmission and receive services but also the possibility to be integrated along with other office machines. Olivetti created a high-performance, reliable machine designed based on the criteria of sharing functionality; a machine suitable for an office environment , fast and user-friendly. The designers emphasised the optimisation of movement transmission mechanisms, the silent mode and the minimisation of wear. The manufacture of different TE 300 parts was based on advanced sinter technology (powder metallurgy) and on the processing of plastic, not only with the purpose of reducing cost but also of manufacturing complex and multifunctional parts of high quality and accuracy. The keyboard is based on the electric typewriter design in order to facilitate secretaries and typists. The first model of the new series came on-stream in 1968, when teletex services in Italy counted 300,000 subscribers and were considered a fast-growing sector. Good market dynamics and the innovative features of TE 300 (i.e. it can transmit on the old 5-bit code but also on an advanced 8-bit code which allows for a richer Telegraph alphabet, better adjusted to the electronic processing of data) fostered its success and was, therefore, used in normal office environments. In the years that followed, the advancement of electronic technologies exerted a strong influence on the development of teleprinter and telex, followed by the increasingly advanced Olivetti models, first the Te 300 series, and then the 400 Te series in 1975. In 1982, with the advancement of the new teleprinter series Te 500, the use of electronics - the usual technology for typewriters - was generalised and telex services could offer extended and interesting solutions. However, in the late 1980s, the use of fax expanded and a little later came e-mail. The impact was inevitable: telex gradually lost its meaning resulting in Italy officially terminating the public service in 2001.