IBM 2260 acoustic delay line

[Jon Elson]

On 12/12/2015 09:37 PM, William Donzelli wrote:
> The IBM 2848, the control unit for the 2260 terminals, contained
> mercury (!) delay line for the video memory. There may have been some
> compensation for the transmission to the terminal, but I have have not
> seen the technical details - I think it was not a concern, probably.
>
>
I don't know where you got this information.  I can find a 
NUMBER of references that say it was a wiresonic delay 
line.  (Due to wiresonic being a trademark, IBM used a 
different name for it.)
But, most certainly, IBM did not have barrels of mercury in 
mainframe computer rooms in the 1960's.
Page 2-29 has the description of the magnetostrictive delay 
line, see :
http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/2260/Y27-2046-3_2260_2848_FETOM_Mar68.pdf

Jon