25 May
2016
25 May
'16
5:17 p.m.
On 2016-05-25 8:48 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
On 05/25/2016 03:31 PM, Noel Chiappa wrote:
The train printers where amazing technology but what often killed the
trains was an operator who neglected to top off the oil reservoir, if
the train went dry they would literally screech to a halt. It was
always interesting when someone put a carriage control tape on backwards
or didn't lower the brushes, the first skip would empty the box and the
paper would be all packed up under the cover.
Paul.
Those printers had an amazingly long life! They
were first introduced
in 1959 with the 1401 computer, and, like I said, the brand spanking
new System 3 they got in ca. 1976 came with one! I wonder when IBM
stopped producing them?
One of the lesser-known stories is that up until the 512
printer, CDC
offered drum printers (501 mostly) for high-speed printing. They were
desperate to get a train printer on the market, but the prototypes would
not last more than a few minutes before the print train flew apart.
Somehow, they got hold of a 1403N1 and essentially took the print
mechanism to pieces to learn its secrets. I don't know if the 1403 ever
worked right after that...
--Chuck