"...There is just zero doubt in my mind that the 1403 printer used a "special" (not TTY-like) paper tape, solely for carriage control, not "data."..."
That's my memory, too. Ours was a 1403-N1 aka '1403-Nancy' - with a lid that was raised on motor-driven screws when the paper either jammed or ran out (or the 'OPEN' button was pressed) thereby exposing delicate ears to the almighty racket of the chain-control motor. Extra points could be earned by raising the lid when printing was actually taking place, thus making normal speech impossible. As I remember things, the 'paper control loop' was made out of some kind of Mylar-based material. Certainly, 'normal' paper tape was simply too fragile for this use. The control loop had to be at least the same length as the page being controlled (or a multiple, if the physical page was very short), but we never had 'clever' stuff that required holes punched in anything other than 'channel 1'. If you didn't re-tension the loop sufficiently when changing over to a different one, the printer would go 'hunting' for channel-1, spewing paper out at the back at a high rate of knots... On 17 January 2017 at 15:42, Charles Mills <[email protected]> wrote: > 1403, not 1401. > > And 1443 (?). I had a client that had a 1403 variant that was a little > slower but included a 16-or-so column card reader. You could print invoices > on pre-punched cards and read the punching to make sure you were printing > on the right card (no spool, obviously). It printed on "160-column" cards, > that is, two 80-column cards with a tearable fold in the middle. One-half > was the document the customer returned with a check; one half was for his > records. > > 1401 was a processor, not a printer, the "commercial" machine that > preceded the 360, the "all-purpose" computer. (70xx was the "scientific" > series.) > > Agree on the 3211. > > There is just zero doubt in my mind that the 1403 printer used a "special" > (not TTY-like) paper tape, solely for carriage control, not "data." > > Charles > > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On > Behalf Of Vernooij, Kees (ITOPT1) - KLM > Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2017 7:24 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Paper tape (was Re: Hidden Figures) > > > Gil: > That is not how I remember it at all. The Carriage tape on a 1403/3211(?) > was just for that machine. i.e. skip to channel x As I have said before I > do not ever remember seeing any IBM device or computer that had a paper > tape reader/writer. > This goes back to the 360’s . I just got off the phone with a friend and > he does not remember it for the 14xx either. > > Ed > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > 1403/3211? It was for the 1401/1403. You had to load it during setup. In > Dutch: 'het bandje' or 'the strap'. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > 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
