Odd floppy drives (Helitron)

The oddest floppy drive I ever saw was a Helitron drive, at Helitron Inc, in Boston, when I worked for this little company CSSN, Inc. Helitron was making the wiring harness for a computer CSSN (attempted to) sell. I can't recall the guy's name, but I chatted with him about the drive. He claims that he was the inventor of the basic floppy mechanism (circular media in an envelope mounted temporarily in a frame, etc) and that IBM stole it from him after meeting with them. The drive I saw of his had a knob on front that selected the track! Apparently the drive only read/wrote within a track, and did not electrically select tracks. While I clearly remember the knob, I know or recall nothing else about it. I think it was in a cabinet, more-or-less 8" full size, vertically. Gold anodized? or painted a similar light color. Just a bunch of them sitting on the shelf. This was around 1980, maybe 1979. No idea whatever happened to them. After making the CSSN box (s100, z80, BASF 6172 3-platter disk, Konan controller, DEI tape, Alloy Eng. interface, PDOS, etc), and schlepping the unreliable thing to the first COMDEX (1980?) I never saw them again. tomj

Various google searches were weak, but found this address: HELITRON inc. 560 harrison ave boston 02i 18 calculator sales/repair? I know they had fallen far, the shop was small, a mess, and the guy was sharp, knowledgable, and resentful of how he feels he was treated. www-tech.mit.edu/archives/VOL_095/TECH_V095_S0401_P002.pdf - (Lower left corner, a small ad)