weird find: papertape "patch" puncher

ed> we also had ones that would punch the really wide tape for the ed> formatters for the line printer! I remember the tape being much ed> wider though! The holes are generally larger, too, perhaps double size. More trivia -- everyone knows 8-channel tape, and a lot of people (older hams especially) know 5-channel tape. There is also 6-channel tape. It's rather specialized -- you find it in early automated typesetting machines. Originally it showed up in tape-fed Linotype machines, then in early optical typesetters. The idea was that you'd prepare the copy on a paper punch keyboard, and then feed the tapes to the typesetter. Several keyboard operators could be kept busy feeding one (very expensive!) typesetter. These 6-channel tapes used a variety of codes, none bearing any resemblance to anything else you know... Much older is Monotype tape, it goes back to the 19th century. That feeds a Monotype type-casting machine, the usual machine for typesetting books and the like up to the 1960s or so. I don't know any of the specifics. Some vague memory says that it had 15 channels, with only two punched for any one frame. Half the channels would define an X-position and half a Y-position for an array of type molds that the casting machine would use. But all that is pretty fuzzy... paul