It was exactly as shown in the Wikipedia photo. It was a very durable, tough, high-fiber paper, not at all the same as TTY punch tape -- other than the superficial similarity. After all, it made a trip around the sensors every page that the 14xx printed, boxes and boxes of greenbar every day. (Or every other page, perhaps. I seem to recall that there was a minimum length to the tape and it was not uncommon to make one tape loop account for two printed pages.) There was a special punch http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/physical-object/ibm/102668343.lg.jpg, but I seem to recall that in a pinch one could use a loose-leaf or similar punch.
Charles -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Paul Gilmartin Sent: Monday, January 16, 2017 8:53 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Paper tape (was Re: Hidden Figures) On Mon, 16 Jan 2017 07:00:27 -0600, Tom Marchant wrote: >On Sat, 14 Jan 2017 00:15:38 +0000, Vince Coen wrote: > >>If no where else it was on the printers for channel control. > >Yep. That's what I was thinking of. I didn't say that it was used for I/O. >https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carriage_control_tape > I recall in that era that IBM printers used an idiosyncratic tape, as in the Wikipedia illustration, requiring a proprietary punch (or would a loose-leaf punch work?) CDC printers used a conventional Teletype tape. Usually a collection of tape loops hung on a pegboard near the printer. -- gil ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
