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

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2015-10-13 18:20, Paul Koning wrote:
>
>> 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.

Electrostatic printers... I've dumped a few in my lifetime. Never tried 
get any of them working, and the last one was like 30 years ago...
Smell of the liquids were bad, and you had a couple of bottles inside 
the printer...

	Johnny