word processor history -- interesting article (Evan Koblentz)

[Paul Berger]

On 2016-07-08 4:33 PM, Paul Koning wrote:
>> On Jul 8, 2016, at 3:13 PM, Chuck Guzis <cclist at sydex.com> wrote:
>>
>> On 07/08/2016 11:46 AM, Paul Berger wrote:
>>
>>> Before displaywriter the OP division of IBM produced the Office
>>> system 6 which had a really cool inkjet printer.... as long as you
>>> didn't have to fix them service reps called them "Spray and pray"
>>> They where not a thermal inkjet like most modern ones, but rather
>>> used a pressurized ink system to force the ink through nozzles on the
>>> print head, I saw one operating without the shroud around the
>>> printhead that sucked back overspray, it was really cool the print
>>> head moved along silently and the character just appeared on the
>>> page.
>> I recall seeing the IBM inkjet printer at a late 70s NCC.  IIRC it used
>> electrostatics to deflect the ink drops to their proper position.
> I saw that technology described in a Dutch magazine ("De Ingenieur" = "the engineer") around 1972 or so.  As PB mentioned, it uses a shroud or baffle, since the ink stream is always active; the control voltage steers the drops towards the paper or towards the baffle.  Ink hitting the baffle was recirculated, I think.
Yes that is correct some of the droplets where purposely steered into 
the "gutter" and yes it was by electrostatic deflection.. IBM would used 
the same sort of system in the Item Numbering Feature (INF) on the 3890 
cheque sorter to print a number on the back of documents on the fly.  
This machine could process up to 2400 cheaque sized documents a minute 
so they are really moving along... print quality was not quite as good.

>
>> ...
>> Initially, I think the biggest advantages of the early wapros was the
>> ability to make edits to existing documents and to create multiple
>> copies of the same document.  I wonder how many of the young 'uns here
>> have experienced the joys of carbon paper (especially when accidentally
>> reversed) or having to re-type a whole page of text to make a few simple
>> edits.
> A bit like editing text (programs) on paper tape...
>
> I may have missed it, but I haven't seen the IBM MT/ST mentioned.  That's certainly a rather old system, dating back to 1964 according to Wikipedia, which says it's the oldest word processor (and references an article about WP history).
I remember some of the older OP techs talking about the MT/ST, the tape 
reader was entirely electro-mechanical and read in stripes across the 
tape.  This would be a precursor of the Magcard Selectric and the Memory 
typewriter.  The later had a wide loop of tape inside an enlarged 
selectric case for storage.

Paul.


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> 	paul
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