31 May
2005
31 May
'05
8:34 a.m.
How to make this work when the magnetic coating was on a rigid surface was
far from obvious. Magnetic drum assemblies were extremely tricky to adjust.
There was a reason why they used fixed heads - the principle of moving along
the drum axis had been known since Edison made the phonograph. The rason why
drum storage used fixed heads was that nobody had figured out how to make
flying heads yet, so they needed a very rigid assembly where you could use
screws to make micrometer adjustments.
--
-bv
At least some drums of the 60's (and later) had flying heads...
I have a add for one from 1963 (Bryant I think) that has a neat scheme for
loading the heads. The drum is tapered and has a certrifugal mechanism that
lifts the tapered drum into flying proximity to the heads when up to speed.
Peter Wallace