Carriage control tapes rode on one free spinning wheel and one sprocket wheel. The free spinning wheel was adjustable and was used to apply slight pressure to the tape. They were at the upper right of the print mechanism. The wheels were 1-1/2 to 2 inches in diameter. The tapes were punched in one of 12 "channels." The tapes were glued at the ends to provide a continuous oval. Depending on the printer clutch setting the 1403 would print 6 or 8 lines per inch. The minimum length was determined by the need to wrap around both of the wheels and have some space between the two wheels.
The punch for the tape produced a hole similar to a punch card, but slightly shorter. There would be a punch for the top of the form and any places the form should be "skipped" to - start of the address line on an invoice, date line, detail line, total line, etc. Skipping was quicker than spacing using line printing. If the wrong carriage control tape was installed and a channel to be skipped to was not there the printer would go into a high speed skip and the form would fly through the printer. You had to be sure to use the right tape or the form would not be spaced correctly. Michael C. O'Byrne Senior Software Analyst - Enterprise Server Foot Locker Corporate Services 7800 W Brown Deer Rd, Milwaukee, WI 53223 (414) 357-4094 From: Charles Mills <charl...@mcn.org> To: IBM-MAIN@listserv.ua.edu Date: 01/16/2017 11:27 AM Subject: Re: Paper tape (was Re: Hidden Figures) Sent by: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@listserv.ua.edu> 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:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On Behalf Of Paul Gilmartin Sent: Monday, January 16, 2017 8:53 AM To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU 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 lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
