----- Original Message ----- From: "Stan Sieler via cctalk" <[email protected]> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2020 4:07 PM Subject: Re: Burroughs L-series paper tapes
> > >> Mike Stein writes: >> > I remember there was another L9000 rescued in California years ago, >> but maybe that's the one you have now. >> > > My consulting company was in Redwood City, CA. Our nextdoor neighbor had a > company leasing new cars. They ran the company on a Burroughs L9000. > > About August of 2000, they were at the point where they could no longer > obtain ledger cards (roughly 8x11 with a magnetic stripe down the side for > computer data), for the L9000, so they were going to move to a PC-based > system. > The owner knew I was a computer collector, so he offered to give me the > L9000. > > I was tempted...but it was a large machine, so I arranged for it to be > given to the Computer History Museum (where I was, or became (timeline > hazy) a senior docent). > > I remember the owner saying that only the cleverness of their independent > maintenance guy had kept the machine running ... to the point where he'd > machined some replacement parts himself. > > I talked to the elderly lady who ran the machine (i.e., did the data > entry). She compared it to the PC, and lamented the loss of the L9000. > The L9000 was so much faster and easier to use! She could probably enter > data four or five times faster on the L9000. It wasn't just a matter of > familiarity ... much of the slowdown was due to the GUI nature of the PC > program they switched to, and they no longer had the luxury of having > relatively purpose-related hardware on the L9000. > > Stan ------------------------- If you scroll down to the L9000 there are pictures of the rescue I was thinking of, which may well be the system you're talking about and even the lady in question: http://www.picklesnet.com/burroughs/gallery/bpgltc.htm
