VT52s, VT61s lots of DEC and DG keyboards- return trip through Maine, MA, NY, PA, OH, IN to IL

[Paul Koning]

> On Oct 13, 2015, at 12:13 PM, Mark J. Blair <nf6x at nf6x.net> wrote:
> 
> 
>> On Oct 12, 2015, at 23:42, Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> On Mon, Oct 12, 2015 at 11:32 PM, Nigel Williams
>> <nw at retrocomputingtasmania.com> wrote:
>>> Has anyone ever seen one? I had an idea it used a silvered-paper and
>>> burned it off? or am I mis-remembering.
>> 
>> I used one in the early 1980s but I never had to repair it.  It was,
>> as Tony and others have mentioned, electrolytic, not thermal.  I don't
>> know the details of the process either, but I remember the wet wick
>> and having to wait for the paper to dry.
> 
> I wonder if the wet-paper printer that you remember used a similar process to the one that my folks' liquid toner photocopier did back in the 80s? It used an electrostatic toner adhesion process followed by a fuser. Just like contemporary laser printers and photocopiers, but with the toner particles suspended in a liquid carrier. The volatile carrier smelled awful, and the finished copies had a fingernails-on-chalkboard like gritty feel in the hands. I seem to recall that it needed specially prepared paper.

That sounds correct.  Versatec made printers that used that process, I used one (attached to the CDC 6500 at U of Illinois PLATO).  Very nice for continuous roll full bitmap graphics.

	paul