25 May
2016
25 May
'16
4:48 p.m.
On 05/25/2016 03:31 PM, Noel Chiappa wrote:
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