weird find: papertape "patch" puncher

Fred> Hi all, Recently I found this really cute, but weird-looking Fred> thingie. It seems to be a handheld tool that allowed operators, Fred> field engineers and so on to manually punch a bit of code onto Fred> paper tape, or to modify (patch) an existing tape. Fred> It was made by, or distributed by "Data Processing Accessories" Fred> in the U.K. Fred> Ideas, anyone? I remember those. splicing or repairing torn tape. If what you're talking about is the thing I saw, it's a metal base plate with a full set of holes, and a set of pins where the sprocket holes are. There are flip-down covers that hold tape onto the base plate. You can hold down a torn tape with the two ends lined up, then tape them together with special adhesive tape that's the width of regular paper tape, pre-punched with a full set of holes. You can then flip down the top lid, which has guide holes for a punch pin, and run the pin down the holes to clean up any overhang from the patching tape. And yes, if you need to make a change to a tape, you can do it with this as well, provided the change only requires adding holes, not subtracting them. (Well, I suppose you could subtract by taping pieces of solid tape over the spot to be changed, and re-punching the holes you want to keep. That requires using the right kind of tape -- a lot of adhesive tape is transparent, and that wouldn't work well at all for tape run through optical readers.) paul