On 2015-10-13 18:20, Paul Koning wrote:
On Oct 13, 2015, at 12:13 PM, Mark J. Blair <[email protected]> wrote:
On Oct 12, 2015, at 23:42, Ethan Dicks <[email protected]> wrote:
On Mon, Oct 12, 2015 at 11:32 PM, Nigel Williams
<[email protected]> 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
