Re: how dot matrix printers placed text

Mike Spencer <mds@bogus.nodomain.nowhere> writes:

Retrograde <fungus@amongus.com.invalid> writes:
>

From the "miss that awesome sound" department:
Title: How dot matrix printers created text
Author: Thom Holwerda
Date: Wed, 03 Jul 2024 22:15:43 +0000
Link: https://www.osnews.com/story/140137/how-dot-matrix-printers-created-text/

>
Jeez, you kids.  Never even heard the "awesome sound" of a skilled
typist using a typewriter.....clatter clatter stottle-spop....dit.

I once had an office mate that would make an awesome buzzing sound as he
typed.  One day I noticed the sound and turned around to see what he was
doing.  Much to my surprise he was doing it typing with 2 fingers.

Years before the place I was consulting at asked me to help out
with a program to clean the print train on an IBM 1403 N1.
This printer would do 1100 lines per minute.
You cleaned it by removing the ribbon and putting a Velcro like paper in
the printer.

So I looked at the print train and found the order characters appeared
on the train.  Then I wrote an assembler program using data chaining to
print 100 lines with one I/O command and loop.  The characters were in the same
order as the print train so all the magnets could fire at once.

When we ran it, the printer produced a loud screeching sound, unlike the
sounds it made during regular printing.  The operators were pretty happy
with their new toy.  The only problem is it cleaned the printer too fast
so the fun didn't last long enough.

--
Dan Espen