Ours was a stack of reel-2-reel tapes on top of the printer. Al Nims Systems Admin/Programmer 3 UFIT University of Florida (352) 273-1298
-----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Charles Mills Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2017 12:07 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Paper tape (was Re: Hidden Figures) > Extra points could be earned by raising the lid when printing was > actually taking place The cover (as you noted) raised on its own for paper jams and IIRC a paper out condition. Double extra points for causing the lid to raise when something -- a tray of cards, a verboten cup of coffee, the CE's took kit -- was sitting on the top of the cover. > The control loop had to be at least the same length as the page being > controlled Same length in lines, same "logical" length, not inches, although the two were not far different IIRC. Charles -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Sean Gleann Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2017 8:30 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Paper tape (was Re: Hidden Figures) "...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... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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
