On 31-Aug-99, Joe wrote:
At 01:25 AM 8/31/99 -0500, Doug wrote:
>Anyone know how old this thing is?
Look at the serial number. Add 1960 to the first two
digits and that
will tell you what year it was made. The second pair of digits will
tell you the week that it was made.
39th week of 1988. Thanks! :)
Yes, they're NICE plotters. Unfortunately,
everyone is throwing them
out and replacing them with ink jets. I rescued two of them but
couldn't even give them away.
It's a shame.
I've been so out of touch with what's going on with drafting that I
thought these things would still be in use. I went to the big office
supply warehouse and they didn't have any kind of large paper. They
told me to try arts supply shops. :)
When I was working using AutoCAD in 1990, I was in a big room with lots
of people doing drafting by hand. I suppose that job is obsolete now?
I actually transferred some old drawings from paper into the computer
while I was there, and a girl I knew did that as a full-time job.
I didn't have direct access to the plotters back then. I shoved my
disks into a little cubbyhole and when I'd come back a few hours later
some drawings had miraculously appeared! :) I was able to peek through
the cubbyholes, though, and the plotters that they used looked to be big
flat tables over which the pens would move in both axes.
I have used smaller plotters, which work only on 8.5x11" sheets. Dopey
little toys compared to this. :) But I really wish I had picked up some
of those Commodore plotters (VIC 1520?) when I had a chance. There were
some of those at the Salvation Army store and I was too busy picking up
other things at the time. One of my many computer collecting regrets.
They probably ended up in the garbage. :'(
Joe
--
Doug Spence Hrothgar's Cool Old Junk Page:
hrothgar(a)total.net
http://www.total.net/~hrothgar/museum/