Full immersion emulation

[Paul Berger]

On 2017-03-02 12:36 AM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
> On 03/01/2017 07:21 PM, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
>
>> Well, we still had a Selectric (1050) on our 360/65 at Washington
>> University up until the end.  I'm pretty sure it was the most
>> unreliable part of the machine.  It seems about every two weeks it
>> would break the timing belt, which meant the clutch had to be
>> rebuilt.  IBM had two 1050's there, and would swap them every time
>> one broke.  They really did run the 1050 hard on that system, it was
>> printing a line about every 10 seconds for about 14 hours straight
>> every week day.
>
> That's one area where CRTs are sooo much better.  The S/360 machines
> just pounded the hell out of the SYSLOG device.  I guess the Selectrics
> were better than the Model B-based console typewriters, which always
> seemed as if they were going to fly apart.
>
> As a typewriter, the  Selectric is pretty good.   I still have a
> correcting Selectri III with a broken drive belt (I have a new belt
> waiting to be installed), but I haven't gotten up the courage to repair
> it myself yet--it's not a simple job.
>
> --Chuck
Its a lot easier on an OP selectric than it is on an I/O, on an I/O 
there is a lot more stuff in the way.   After you change a few dozen it 
gets pretty routine.  One of the banking terminals I serviced would jam 
mid-cycle if the type ball hit the line finder on the document feed, and 
since thy had a stronger motor than the OP selectric it would at least 
tear teeth off the belt if it didn't break it.  In some banks the 
terminals where set into the counter so the bank's customers would come 
by to offer their sage advise while you had one torn apart for something 
like a motor belt.

Paul.