[TriLUG] Private note - Re: can anyone read a 5.25" floppy disk?

[Glenn Hennessee]

I don't remember oil impregnated tape but I have used paper tape before. In
the mid 70s I was a grad student doing x-ray crystallography and the
computer was a Data General Nova 1200 with 4 K of CORE memory. There was a
mag tape drive for programs and saving data but when it broke we used the
paper tape reader on a Teletype ASR33 to input programs. The teletype was
the printer for the system and the "CRT". The 1200 had toggle switches on
the front and there was a bootstrap loader keyed in with them for reading
the mag tape drive. While the bootstrap should never have needed keying in,
it would get "blown" out of memory and have to be rekeyed  at least once a
week.  I almost knew that thing by heart.
glenn

On Thu, Jun 9, 2011 at 6:27 AM, Peter Neilson <neilson at windstream.net>wrote:

> On 06/08/2011 11:05 PM, David Burton wrote:
>
>  In fact, I can even *punch* 8-channel paper tape, but the tape is hard to
>> come by these days.
>>
>
> Do you remember how some of the tape was oil-impregnated, to lubricate the
> punch? Do you remember the vast amount of write-once--read-once tape we
> would use up for some applications. Or even write-once--read-never? Do you
> remember buckets overflowing with oily tape and oily chad?
>
> Did you ever wonder what would happen if someone dropped a lit cigar into a
> an overflowing bucket of paper tape and other trash?
>
> My father found out.
>
> He picked up the burning bucket and carried it outside, scorching his thumb
> in the process.
> --
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-- 
Glenn