14 Jan
2026
14 Jan
'26
10:17 a.m.
I bought a reel of paper tape at an office supply shop today.
It was in their 'bargains' room and is marked
NCR
SYSTEMEDIA
01-6388181
Telex 888634
PTI
Made in England
It cost me £0.50. I think they had two more reels. it's age is indicated by
having a London phone number that was made obsolete 30 years ago.
However, what surprises me is that it's 17.5 mm (0.69", 11/16") wide. This
seems too narrow for 7-hole tape and too wide for the tape used for
telegrams. Is it for 5-hole tape ?
14 Jan
14 Jan
10:26 a.m.
On 14/01/2026 18:17, Adrian Godwin via cctalk wrote:
I bought a reel of paper tape at an office supply shop
today.
It was in their 'bargains' room and is marked
NCR
SYSTEMEDIA
01-6388181
Telex 888634
PTI
Made in England
It cost me £0.50. I think they had two more reels. it's age is indicated by
having a London phone number that was made obsolete 30 years ago.
However, what surprises me is that it's 17.5 mm (0.69", 11/16") wide. This
seems too narrow for 7-hole tape and too wide for the tape used for
telegrams. Is it for 5-hole tape ?
Yes 5-hole tape used for Telex and RTTY. Also
the Manchester Mk1
apparently from equipment Alan Turing "liberated" from Bletchley park.
Later Ferranti computers also used this media...
I have a few reels of both this and 1" tape (non-oiled) should any one
need any...
Dave
G4UGM
10:42 a.m.
That's good to know. I've seen people complaining it's impossible to find.
I don't actually have any punches or readers myself but I've seen things
like printers that use a small loop of mylar tape for programming vertical
tabs.
Is it rare enough that I should cache the other two reels ? I've got more
clutter than I need if it's not. The shop is in St Neots, Cambridgeshire,
UK.
On Wed, Jan 14, 2026 at 6:26 PM David Wade via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
On 14/01/2026 18:17, Adrian Godwin via cctalk wrote:
I bought a reel of paper tape at an office supply
shop today.
It was in their 'bargains' room and is marked
NCR
SYSTEMEDIA
01-6388181
Telex 888634
PTI
Made in England
It cost me £0.50. I think they had two more reels. it's age is indicated
by
having a London phone number that was made
obsolete 30 years ago.
However, what surprises me is that it's 17.5 mm (0.69", 11/16") wide.
This
seems too narrow for 7-hole tape and too wide for
the tape used for
telegrams. Is it for 5-hole tape ?
Yes 5-hole tape used for Telex and RTTY. Also the Manchester Mk1
apparently from equipment Alan Turing "liberated" from Bletchley park.
Later Ferranti computers also used this media...
I have a few reels of both this and 1" tape (non-oiled) should any one
need any...
Dave
G4UGM
12:47 p.m.
Adrian
IMHO worth buying, if no one puts there hand up higher I will save you from clutter, AFAIK
curently PT is NoS only.
I have a slightly wonky 5 hole capable punch it can feed idc
Martin
-----Original Message-----
From: Adrian Godwin via cctalk [mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org]
Sent: 14 January 2026 18:43
Subject: [cctalk] Re: Paper tape
Is it rare enough that I should cache the other two reels ? I've got more clutter than
I need if it's not. The shop is in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, UK.
10:28 a.m.
On 1/14/26 10:17, Adrian Godwin via cctalk wrote:
I bought a reel of paper tape at an office supply shop
today.
[snip]
However, what surprises me is that it's 17.5 mm (0.69", 11/16") wide. This
seems too narrow for 7-hole tape and too wide for the tape used for
telegrams. Is it for 5-hole tape ?
Yep; 11/16ths is the standard for five hole
tapes.
--
Christian Kennedy, Ph.D.
chris(a)mainecoon.com AF6AP | DB00000692 | PG00029419
http://www.mainecoon.com PGP KeyID 108DAB97
PGP fingerprint: 4E99 10B6 7253 B048 6685 6CBC 55E1 20A3 108D AB97
"Mr. McKittrick, after careful consideration…"
10:56 a.m.
On Jan 14, 2026, at 1:17 PM, Adrian Godwin via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
I bought a reel of paper tape at an office supply shop today.
It was in their 'bargains' room and is marked
NCR
SYSTEMEDIA
01-6388181
Telex 888634
PTI
Made in England
It cost me £0.50. I think they had two more reels. it's age is indicated by
having a London phone number that was made obsolete 30 years ago.
However, what surprises me is that it's 17.5 mm (0.69", 11/16") wide. This
seems too narrow for 7-hole tape and too wide for the tape used for
telegrams. Is it for 5-hole tape ?
By "telegrams" did you mean Wheatstone tape, i.e., two rows to encode Morse?
I've only seen that in ads for McElroy/Creed punched paper Morse code machines (e.g,
in the 1954 ARRL Amateur Radio Handbook).
1 inch is standard for 8 row tape. It's also often used with 7-row codes like some
Flexowriters use. But there are more obscure sizes specificallyl for 7 row and 6 row
tape. 6 row is the standard tape for typesetting machines, starting with Linotype
machines and continuing with early phototypesetters. It was also used (for that reason)
for newspaper wire service feeds.
paul
12:03 p.m.
Paul, knowing that you worked with typset-11 , would you know of a copy of the software
that’s available? Another list member has acquired a vt52 and asked what it was used for.
Typeset-11 came up.
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 14, 2026, at 10:57, Paul Koning via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Jan 14, 2026, at 1:17 PM, Adrian Godwin via
cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
I bought a reel of paper tape at an office supply shop today.
It was in their 'bargains' room and is marked
NCR
SYSTEMEDIA
01-6388181
Telex 888634
PTI
Made in England
It cost me £0.50. I think they had two more reels. it's age is indicated by
having a London phone number that was made obsolete 30 years ago.
However, what surprises me is that it's 17.5 mm (0.69", 11/16") wide. This
seems too narrow for 7-hole tape and too wide for the tape used for
telegrams. Is it for 5-hole tape ?
By "telegrams" did you mean Wheatstone tape, i.e., two rows to encode Morse?
I've only seen that in ads for McElroy/Creed punched paper Morse code machines (e.g,
in the 1954 ARRL Amateur Radio Handbook).
1 inch is standard for 8 row tape. It's also often used with 7-row codes like some
Flexowriters use. But there are more obscure sizes specificallyl for 7 row and 6 row
tape. 6 row is the standard tape for typesetting machines, starting with Linotype
machines and continuing with early phototypesetters. It was also used (for that reason)
for newspaper wire service feeds.
paul
12:28 p.m.
On Jan 14, 2026, at 3:03 PM, Wayne S
<wayne.sudol(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
Paul, knowing that you worked with typset-11 , would you know of a copy of the software
that’s available? Another list member has acquired a vt52 and asked what it was used for.
Typeset-11 came up.
You mean VT61? VT52 is a regular terminal. VT61/t is one of the two Typeset-11 specific
terminals (the low end one, for use by classified ad takers and also used by reporters
with modest editing requirements). The VT71/t is the fancy editing terminal. To make
things confusing, Bitsavers has a VT21 which I think is a prototype of the VT71, I never
saw it as an actual device. And the VT72 as far as I know is a VT71 with a different
color scheme, intended for a VMS based typesetting system. I don't remember if that
ever shipped.
As for the software, I have occasionally searched for it but seen no evidence of a copy
anywhere. At one point I talked to the curator of a Massachusetts printing technology
museum who apparently at one time had a Typeset-11 system, but got rid of it because
computers weren't their thing and apparently does not have anything left of it.
It would be really neat if anything could be found. The software is a collection of
applications running on RSX-11/D or IAS, including a couple of unusual I/O devices. Some
of it could probably be reconstructed if the software could be found. Emulating a
typesetter would be an interesting problem given that they all had vendor-dependent coding
and possibly customer-dependent coding (each customer would order a particular set of
fonts). The VT71 hardware documentation exists on Bitsavers; I haven't found the
firmware either, though a Typeset-11 system would have that since it's downloaded. I
actually asked the author of that code about it but it doesn't sound like he has a
copy.
paul
12:04 p.m.
On 14/01/2026 18:56, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
In the UK telegrams and I assume from this listing:-
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192535576139
were printed on gummed tape that was stuck onto a card for delivery.....
Dave
G4UGM
On Jan 14, 2026, at 1:17 PM, Adrian Godwin via
cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
I bought a reel of paper tape at an office supply shop today.
It was in their 'bargains' room and is marked
NCR
SYSTEMEDIA
01-6388181
Telex 888634
PTI
Made in England
It cost me £0.50. I think they had two more reels. it's age is indicated by
having a London phone number that was made obsolete 30 years ago.
However, what surprises me is that it's 17.5 mm (0.69", 11/16") wide. This
seems too narrow for 7-hole tape and too wide for the tape used for
telegrams. Is it for 5-hole tape ?
By "telegrams" did you mean
Wheatstone tape, i.e., two rows to encode Morse? I've only seen that in ads for
McElroy/Creed punched paper Morse code machines (e.g, in the 1954 ARRL Amateur Radio
Handbook). 1 inch is standard for 8 row tape. It's also
often used with 7-row codes like some Flexowriters use. But there are more obscure sizes
specificallyl for 7 row and 6 row tape. 6 row is the standard tape for typesetting
machines, starting with Linotype machines and continuing with early phototypesetters. It
was also used (for that reason) for newspaper wire service feeds.
paul
12:10 p.m.
On Jan 14, 2026, at 3:04 PM, David Wade via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On 14/01/2026 18:56, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
I forgot about that stuff. The Wheatstone tape I mentioned is this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheatstone_system
paul
...By "telegrams" did you mean Wheatstone tape, i.e., two rows to encode Morse?
I've only seen that in ads for McElroy/Creed punched paper Morse code machines (e.g,
in the 1954 ARRL Amateur Radio Handbook).
In the UK telegrams and I assume from this listing:-
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192535576139
were printed on gummed tape that was stuck onto a card for delivery.....
1:39 p.m.
Thanks Paul for that great bit of info. Would you mind if I reposted it to the Discord
whete it was first mentioned.
If so, do you want me to delete your name or can i attribute it to you?
Wayne
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 14, 2026, at 13:08, Paul Koning via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Jan 14, 2026, at 3:04 PM, David Wade via
cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
I forgot about that stuff. The Wheatstone tape I mentioned is this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheatstone_system
paul
On 14/01/2026 18:56, Paul Koning via cctalk
wrote:
...By "telegrams" did you mean Wheatstone tape, i.e., two rows to encode Morse?
I've only seen that in ads for McElroy/Creed punched paper Morse code machines (e.g,
in the 1954 ARRL Amateur Radio Handbook).
In the UK telegrams and I assume from this listing:-
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192535576139
were printed on gummed tape that was stuck onto a card for delivery.....
12:12 p.m.
On Wed, Jan 14, 2026 at 8:04 PM David Wade via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
In the UK telegrams and I assume from this listing:-
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192535576139
were printed on gummed tape that was stuck onto a card for delivery.....
Exactly that. I've also seen (in films?) people pulling that tape off a
machine and reading the single-line text off the tape, unlike telex and
teletype machines where it's printed on wider paper. But it looks no more
than 10mm wide.
12:57 p.m.
On 2026Jan 14,, at 12:12 PM, Adrian Godwin via cctalk <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
On Wed, Jan 14, 2026 at 8:04 PM David Wade via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
wrote:
The industry nomenclature TMU is:
- page teleprinter (prints multiple lines on a page-width roll of paper, e.g.
Teletype Models ASR-33, 19, 28)
- tape teleprinter (prints a long line on a narrow strip of paper tape, e.g.
Teletype Model 14)
The paper tape for standard tape-printers is 3/8” wide.
In the UK telegrams and I assume from this
listing:-
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192535576139
were printed on gummed tape that was stuck onto a card for delivery.....
Exactly that. I've also seen (in films?) people pulling that tape off a
machine and reading the single-line text off the tape, unlike telex and
teletype machines where it's printed on wider paper. But it looks no more
than 10mm wide.
7
days inactive
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days old
12 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
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Adrian Godwin -
Brent Hilpert -
Christian Kennedy -
David Wade -
Martin Bishop -
Paul Koning -
Wayne S