On Sun, 9 May 2004, William Donzelli wrote:
The
"first" key-to-tape. A pretty useful device, really, for that era.
Tap data directly to tape and then load it onto the mainframe.
Are you sure it was the "first" (good use of Quites, by the way)? I am
pretty sure IBM had them for some time.
Which is why I use quotes :) I've been around long enough to know you
rarely (if ever) claim anything is the "first" of anything. This is as
far as I know, without having researched it in depth. If you know of an
earlier IBM product then I'd like to know about it.
But are you
sure it's 7-track? I haven't been able to tell for sure on
mine because the head is tucked away such that you can't really see the
surface.
I can look again, but I am pretty certain I saw only seven things on the
head. I don't know if this is important, but these are ex-Western Union
machines, and they liked to be difficult. Perhaps a special oder from MDS?
Possibly. I haven't been able to get a good look myself. I tried
removing a plate from the opposite end of the head block that I thought
would allow me to peer at the head but there wasn't a hole where I thought
there would be one. In the process, I dropped one of the screws for
affixing the plate to the head block down the tape take-up bin. Nice.
Now I have to go fishing for it with a magnetic tipped telescoping rod or
something (I'm not going to try tipping this thing upside down to get it
;)
How come
RCS/RI doesn't want this? It's a nice piece of old iron.
Space.
The final frontier.
Hopefully
someone gets it (someone other than the scrapman). Yours and
mine are the only ones I know of, though I'm sure there are at least a few
more still in existence.
I actually have two. I am getting rid of the "spare".
Yep, worst cast put it on the VCM (or eBay if you must). Perhaps the
Computer History Museum might want it...
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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