that enabled small rounded pellets to form letters and numbers and travel around outdoor message signs. It also joined forces with the Artkraft Strauss Sign Corporation, which was the first signage corporation to first illuminate the "Great White Way" of Broadway. By 1948 it was supplying electrical traveling message signs to advertisers, radio stations, and publishers throughout the country. At the same time, Trans-Lux had 1,400 stock-ticker projectors and 80 news projectors in the United States, plus another 200 in Canada. By the early '60's, Trans-Lux began to see a need for greater investment in electronics as stock exchanges and brokerage firms were inundated with new, advanced techniques for gathering and projecting information. The company's fortunes were tied to its old system's two-step process: the information it relied on began with prices from the ticker tape, then a delay was required as the ticker tape shifted away from the print head to a viewing position for projecting or televising. With an electronic ticker display, Trans-Lux could bypass the printing stage, creating a real-time, immediate information system. In 1965, the company was shocked by the introduction of a new -long electronic display installed on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange by a competitor, Recognition Equipment Inc. (REI), of Dallas. Even though the Ultronic Letrascan electronic wall device had been steadily replacing Trans-Lux tickers for several years, the New York Stock Exchange installation was cause for concern, as Trans-Lux had enjoyed a long-standing business relationship with the exchange. The company made a deal with REI: since Trans-Lux needed Recognition's technology, and they needed Trans-Lux's knowledge of how to market stock-ticker equipment, they formed a joint venture to create a much smaller version of the Recognition system. Two years later, they announced the Trans-Lux Jet, named for the jets of air that controlled character formation in the sign. It was the highest quality, real-time, continuous flow wall display yet produced, and a new method of viewing up-to-the-minute stock market sales information. Its ten-foot size made it perfect for brokerage offices, but perhaps the best news for Trans-Lux was that it no longer needed to rely on the Western Union ticker. U.S. and Canadian brokerage houses ordered more than 1,000 Trans-Lux Jets in the first six months, and Trans-Lux opened an international office in Zurich, Switzerland to deal with overseas orders. By mid-1969, about 3,000 Jets were in use. Shortly after