14 Apr
2024
14 Apr
'24
11:50 a.m.
On Sun, 2024-04-14 at 13:15 -0400, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
The printer I was describing sounds a lot like the
Versatec ones you
mentioned, including the funny paper and smelly toner. But it was
actually made by Varian, and the driver tells me it had 1408 pixels
across the width of the paper, so at 11 inches wide that would make
it 128 PPI. I wonder if I still have a sample page or two from that
printer.
American Geophysical had a fleet of trucks fitted with hydraulic
"thumpers." They would go out to a potential oil or gas field, lay out
a few thousand feet of cables with geophones on them, and drive around
thumping the ground. Within the truck, they had Varian V70 computers
with microcode to do Fast Fourier Transforms. They also had Varian
electrostatic printers fitted for 36-inch paper on hundred-foot rolls.
I never visited one, so I don't know whether they had funny paper and
smelly toner.