2 Mar
2017
2 Mar
'17
1:27 a.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Jon Elson
via cctalk
Sent: 02 March 2017 03:21
To: Paul Berger <phb.hfx at gmail.com>; General at classiccmp.org;
Discussion at classiccmp.org:On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
<cctalk at classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: Full immersion emulation
On 03/01/2017 02:54 PM, Paul Berger via cctalk wrote:
I am a bit surprised you go that many belt breakages. The one on the 360/67 at Newcastle
was utterly reliable, as was the 2741 we had on our remote connection, and also the same
unit in the 1130 console. The usual reason for belt breakages is contamination with oil
which attacks the rubber so perhaps there was some over enthusiasm going on here. On the
other hand I do remember that the CE who came into the IBM Manchester (UK) office to fix
the IBM 1800 based PABX
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_1750,_2750_and_3750_Switching_Systems
used to curse, as the 2741 console on that was usually switched off, so got gummed up, and
required a clean and lube before he could start work on the PABX....
Dave
On 2017-03-01 3:14 PM, Charles Anthony via cctalk wrote:
Well, we still had a Selectric (1050) on our
360/65 at Washington University up
until the end. I'm pretty sure it was the most unreliable part of the machine.
It seems about every two weeks it would break the timing belt, which meant
the clutch had to be rebuilt. IBM had two 1050's there, and would swap
them every time one broke. They really did run the 1050 hard on that
system, it was printing a line about every 10 seconds for about 14 hours
straight every week day.
Jon Part of the iconic mainframe experience is the
cold room sounds; for
early Multics installations (and other systems) the sound of the
Selectric operator's console.
I/O Selectrics are rare, expensive and unreliable.
They are all mechanical and
stood up remarkably well to hammering away
day and night printing out the console log, considering what they are,
I would hardly think unreliable fits.