Standard Cocktail Napkin Size [WAS: RE: history is hard

[Rod Smallwood]

On 25/05/2020 20:56, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
>>>> The final media size was determined by Shugart Engineering led by Al
>>>> Chou from the size of the 8-track tape drive that the 5�-inch FDD was
>>>> to replace in Wang and other systems.  As near as I can tell it was
>>>> not the same size as a �standard� cocktail napkin.
>>> "standard"??!?
>>> "I believe in standards.  Everyone should have [a unique] one [of their
>>> own]." - George Morrow I have seen napkins that are about 5.25".
>
> On Mon, 25 May 2020, Tom Gardner via cctalk wrote:
>> I did attempt to see if there is a "standard" cocktail napkin size 
>> and as
>> best I can tell it is today 5-inches square not 5�-inches square.
>>
>> A friend who is a veteran of the paper products industry provided me an
>> actual cocktail napkin circa 1980 (a promotional give away for his 
>> business)
>> that he recalls was procured to the then standard size which I 
>> measured as
>> 5-inches square.  Apparently cocktail napkins have not deflated over the
>> intervening 40 years :-)
>>
>> This supports Adkisson's recollection that the customer wanted something
>> about the size of a cocktail napkin and Chou's description of the
>> development process that tried to maximize the size of the disk that 
>> could
>> be received in a drive which in turn was designed to fit into the then
>> existing 8-track tape drive slot.
>
>
> While 5" seems to be "standard", here is 5.25":
> https://www.amazon.com/Beistle-S20936AZ3-Snowflake-Beverage-Napkins/dp/B076QC44WJ/ 
>
>
> and here is 5" x 5.25"
> https://www.amazon.com/SB-Design-Studio-D4430-Beverage/dp/B07R15GNGX/
>
>
> Cocktail napkin HOLDERS seem to be 5.25", supporting 5" for the napkin.
>
5.25" = 3U (Standard rack size)