On Wed, 17 Oct 2012 09:08:10 +0100, Steve Rickaby <srickaby at wordmongers.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>At 20:32 -0500 16/10/12, Jeremy H. Griffith wrote: > >>...because it was invented by IBM for the MTST >(Magnetic Tape Selectric Typewriter)... > >You mean there was an *automatic* Selectric? Why >didn't I know about this?? Why didn't I have one??? ;-) They were kinda expensive, I think in the $20K range. My company at the time leased four of them, plus the MTSC, Magnetic Tape Selectric Composer, which did fine proportional spacing. It used different type balls from the regular Selectric. There was also an MCST, Magnetic Card Selectric Typewriter, but it didn't catch on as well as the MTST. I think I still have a few MTST tape cartridges; they held about seven pages each... ;-) About five years later I worked on the first "affordable" dedicated word processor, the Artec Display 2000, with a 37-character LED display, only $9,995, plus options like more memory (16K to start) and a second 8" floppy drive. It ran CP/M internally. I still have one in storage, the developers' model with 64K, two 8" drives, an RS-232 port for a terminal (not monitor), and a ROM that allowed copying disks (not for customers; blanks were $10, program disks $50). The company was later purchased by Dictaphone, which was swallowed by Pitney-Bowes, and the next version, the $15K Dual Display with a CRT, never made it out. -- Jeremy H. Griffith, at Omni Systems Inc. <jeremy at omsys.com> http://mif2go.com/
