21 Dec
2024
21 Dec
'24
9:41 a.m.
my recollection from being a computer operator at the time was the the earlier 1403s did
NOT have an interchangeable chain.
Also curious if any 1404 printers still exist. They were wider and you could shift the
print mechanism to the side where there was a mechanisms to print on tabulating cards, one
or two at a time.
<pre>--Carey</pre>
On 12/21/2024 11:07 AM CST Jon Elson via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 12/20/24 18:36, Van Snyder via cctalk wrote:
> The IBM 1403 printer had interchangeable print chains. I know of only
> four 1403 printers still working — two at the Computer History Museum
> in Mountain View, CA, one at the IBM Technology Center in Böblingen,
> Germany, and one near Endicott, NY.
>
> All four have the 48-character "A" or "Business" chain, and CHM
has a
> 16-character numeric chain that allows the printer to run twice as fast
> for numeric-only output. CHM doesn't have an "H" or
"Fortran" chain,
> and as far as I know, none of the others do. The difference is that
> parentheses are % and "lozenge" — a square with indented edges
> — apostrophe is @, and = is # on the "A" chain. IBM also had a 64-
> character chain that included box and line drawing graphics. BTW,
> nobody seems to know what "lozenge" was meant to represent.
>
> Does anybody know of an existing "H" chain or graphics chain for a
> 1403?
>
> Van Snyder