6 ms·

Accounting machines, the IBM 1403, and why printers standardized on 132 columns

73 points by mmastrac 8y ago

etbusch 8y ago
An interesting read as always from Ken. I've got a first-generation Apple Dot Matrix Printer that's up next for a restoration. I understand that I can still get drivers for this, but does anyone know what it might be worth? eBay comes up with nothing.
- bitwize 8y ago
  Dude, you send your friends greeting cards or invitations run off in Print Shop, that thing will be worth its weight in gold! EDIT: Apparently this printer is the predecessor to the ImageWriter.
dbcurtis 8y ago
Those of us that were around in the days of mainframes and line printers remember that actually you sent 133 columns of characters to the printer, column 0 being the "carriage control" character. The most popular being blank, to advance one line, '1', to do a page eject a.k.a. top-of-form, and '+', overprint. The story that I heard is that the '+' character's over-strike behavior was a side-effect of logic minimization in the printer controller of the 1403, and became very popular after someone discovered it. IBM then issued an FCO (Field Change Order) that customer engineers installed in all 1403 printers that were on maintenance contracts, which was all of them, because you could not survive without a maintenance contract. The FCO "corrected the logic bug" that allowed overprinting. However, the newly announced 1403A printer supported overprinting as a feature. The FCO included a toggle switch that allowed the customer engineer to do an instant field upgrade to the 1403A. Assuming, of course, that you paid for the field upgrade and increased rental and maintenance fees of the 1403A. (I heard this story from an office mate who had been around in those days. He was a systems programmer that got the job by the then-standard path. As an undergrad, he figured out how to hack the OS to get free computer time. When they caught him, they offered him a job as an assistant systems programmer on the condition that he not share the secret.)
- kens 8y ago
  It was a bit different with the IBM 1403 printer on the IBM 1401 computer. You added a suffix to the write line instruction to suppress the line feed. This optional "space suppression" feature cost $63. As far as I can tell, using a '+' in the first column to overprint was a Fortran thing, known as Fortran Carriage Control. One entertaining feature of the 1403 was that form feeds were controlled by a 12-column paper tape. By punching holes in the tape, you could quickly form feed to 12 different positions on your page. (This was useful for pre-printed forms.) The only problem was if you did a form feed and there wasn't a hole in that column in the paper tape, the printer would feed at high speed through the entire box of paper without stopping. (The 1403 used a hydraulic motor for high-speed form feeds. If you see hydraulic fluid under the printer at the Computer History Museum, that's why.)
  - chiph 8y ago
    How did the 1403 start & stop the paper advance? Once the paper gets moving, there's a lot of inertia there. Was there an air bladder in the hydraulic line to absorb fluid-hammer from the rapid pressure changes? One of the printers I worked on in the USAF had electromagnetic clutches - one would engage to hold the paper in place while the other would open to disengage the drive belt. To move the paper, the "hold" clutch would disengage and the "drive" clutch would engage for just long enough to move it the required distance. And then the clutch action would reverse (hold clutch engage, drive clutch release) to stop the paper's motion. After a while, the clutch material would wear out and you would get the infinite form-feed. Edit: For the curious, this was taken at the school at Sheppard AFB in 1983: https://imgur.com/a/J74K6wM https://imgur.com/a/J74K6wM
    - kens 8y ago
      The 1403 has electrically-controlled valves to send fluid from the constantly-running pumps to the hydraulic motor to do a space (line feed) or skip (form feed). There's a back pressure bypass valve that relieves the pressure when the printer advance stops. The 1403 Field Engineering manual goes into great detail on the hydraulic system, starting at page 56. The momentum when stopping is described on page 62. Link: http://ibm-1401.info/0KenShirriff/IBM_Field_Engineering_Manual_of_Instruction_1403_Printers_225_6492_3.pdf http://ibm-1401.info/0KenShirriff/IBM_Field_Engineering_Manu...
mark-r 8y ago
My first exposure to line printers was through a Control Data mainframe at a University in the mid '70's. There were a few Control Data printers at centralized locations, and user operated Univac printers more scattered. Both used 14 7/8 paper with 132 columns.
Animats 8y ago
Why the IBM 402 had 43 alphanumeric typebars: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION 0000000001111111111222222222233333333334444 1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- kens 8y ago
  Is that real or an urban legend or somewhere in between? Slightly tangentially, IBM often went by "International" back then. Products would have an "International" logo on them, and names like "International Automatic Carriage". e.g.: https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2009/09/102652895.05.24.acc.pdf https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/20...
gumby 8y ago
> the IBM 705 business computer rented for $43,000 a month (almost $400,000 in current dollars). But the IBM 1401 could be rented for $2500 per month, opening up the market to medium-sized businesses Amazing that we are basically back in that place again: renting computers or paying for computer time.
- jacobush 8y ago
  We are due for a back-lash soon. "On-premise cloud" or something.
  - mark-r 8y ago
    Doubtful. The cost driver has ceased to be the machine itself and has become all the ancillaries, system admins and internet trunks and data center redundancy and...
acqq 8y ago
Read the notes, it's especially interesting: > in 1954, Remington Rand introduced the first high-speed drum printer, the "High Speed Off Line Printer System" for the UNIVAC computer. This printer produced 600 lines per minute at 130 characters per line. The printer used 18 kW of power and was cooled by 8 gallons per minute of chilled water. Wow.
- skookumchuck 8y ago
  It's a good thing we don't need listings anymore.
- chiph 8y ago
  A friend was a programmer in the 90's for a firm that was getting a new higher-end IBM 3090. He was in the manager's office looking over the layout for the installation, when he asked "Where is the water pump going?" Blank look, followed by the "oh shit" look.
gumby 8y ago
This is a lovely well-researched article on the origin of a number of otherwise bizarre I/O constants. E.g. the following: "...why not use 130 instead of 132? Due to the complex alignment between the 1403's chain and the print hammers, a line width divisible by 3 (such as 132) works out better."
miohtama 8y ago
50 years later we still cannot develop programming text editors with soft line wrap to satisfy everyone.
hsnewman 8y ago
I was in college learning Fortran on one of these. Half way through the class they moved us to a mainframe, I was amazed at how much more the compiler reported on the mainframe vs the 1403 (errors and warnings).
dboreham 8y ago
Interesting. I still set my shell windows to 132 chars wide, but I do that because I used VT100 terminals way back.
- mark-r 8y ago
  And why do you think VT100's had that capability?
- tonyedgecombe 8y ago
  Me too, and 66 lines long.

73 points by mmastrac 8y ago

An interesting read as always from Ken. I've got a first-generation Apple Dot Matrix Printer that's up next for a restoration. I understand that I can still get drivers for this, but does anyone know what it might be worth? eBay comes up with nothing.

bitwize 8y ago
Dude, you send your friends greeting cards or invitations run off in Print Shop, that thing will be worth its weight in gold! EDIT: Apparently this printer is the predecessor to the ImageWriter.

dbcurtis 8y ago

Those of us that were around in the days of mainframes and line printers remember that actually you sent 133 columns of characters to the printer, column 0 being the "carriage control" character. The most popular being blank, to advance one line, '1', to do a page eject a.k.a. top-of-form, and '+', overprint. The story that I heard is that the '+' character's over-strike behavior was a side-effect of logic minimization in the printer controller of the 1403, and became very popular after someone discovered it. IBM then issued an FCO (Field Change Order) that customer engineers installed in all 1403 printers that were on maintenance contracts, which was all of them, because you could not survive without a maintenance contract. The FCO "corrected the logic bug" that allowed overprinting. However, the newly announced 1403A printer supported overprinting as a feature. The FCO included a toggle switch that allowed the customer engineer to do an instant field upgrade to the 1403A. Assuming, of course, that you paid for the field upgrade and increased rental and maintenance fees of the 1403A. (I heard this story from an office mate who had been around in those days. He was a systems programmer that got the job by the then-standard path. As an undergrad, he figured out how to hack the OS to get free computer time. When they caught him, they offered him a job as an assistant systems programmer on the condition that he not share the secret.)

kens 8y ago
It was a bit different with the IBM 1403 printer on the IBM 1401 computer. You added a suffix to the write line instruction to suppress the line feed. This optional "space suppression" feature cost $63. As far as I can tell, using a '+' in the first column to overprint was a Fortran thing, known as Fortran Carriage Control. One entertaining feature of the 1403 was that form feeds were controlled by a 12-column paper tape. By punching holes in the tape, you could quickly form feed to 12 different positions on your page. (This was useful for pre-printed forms.) The only problem was if you did a form feed and there wasn't a hole in that column in the paper tape, the printer would feed at high speed through the entire box of paper without stopping. (The 1403 used a hydraulic motor for high-speed form feeds. If you see hydraulic fluid under the printer at the Computer History Museum, that's why.)
- chiph 8y ago
  How did the 1403 start & stop the paper advance? Once the paper gets moving, there's a lot of inertia there. Was there an air bladder in the hydraulic line to absorb fluid-hammer from the rapid pressure changes? One of the printers I worked on in the USAF had electromagnetic clutches - one would engage to hold the paper in place while the other would open to disengage the drive belt. To move the paper, the "hold" clutch would disengage and the "drive" clutch would engage for just long enough to move it the required distance. And then the clutch action would reverse (hold clutch engage, drive clutch release) to stop the paper's motion. After a while, the clutch material would wear out and you would get the infinite form-feed. Edit: For the curious, this was taken at the school at Sheppard AFB in 1983: https://imgur.com/a/J74K6wM https://imgur.com/a/J74K6wM
  - kens 8y ago
    The 1403 has electrically-controlled valves to send fluid from the constantly-running pumps to the hydraulic motor to do a space (line feed) or skip (form feed). There's a back pressure bypass valve that relieves the pressure when the printer advance stops. The 1403 Field Engineering manual goes into great detail on the hydraulic system, starting at page 56. The momentum when stopping is described on page 62. Link: http://ibm-1401.info/0KenShirriff/IBM_Field_Engineering_Manual_of_Instruction_1403_Printers_225_6492_3.pdf http://ibm-1401.info/0KenShirriff/IBM_Field_Engineering_Manu...

mark-r 8y ago

My first exposure to line printers was through a Control Data mainframe at a University in the mid '70's. There were a few Control Data printers at centralized locations, and user operated Univac printers more scattered. Both used 14 7/8 paper with 132 columns.

Animats 8y ago

Why the IBM 402 had 43 alphanumeric typebars: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION 0000000001111111111222222222233333333334444 1234567890123456789012345678901234567890123

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
kens 8y ago
Is that real or an urban legend or somewhere in between? Slightly tangentially, IBM often went by "International" back then. Products would have an "International" logo on them, and names like "International Automatic Carriage". e.g.: https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2009/09/102652895.05.24.acc.pdf https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/20...

gumby 8y ago

> the IBM 705 business computer rented for $43,000 a month (almost $400,000 in current dollars). But the IBM 1401 could be rented for $2500 per month, opening up the market to medium-sized businesses Amazing that we are basically back in that place again: renting computers or paying for computer time.

jacobush 8y ago
We are due for a back-lash soon. "On-premise cloud" or something.
- mark-r 8y ago
  Doubtful. The cost driver has ceased to be the machine itself and has become all the ancillaries, system admins and internet trunks and data center redundancy and...

acqq 8y ago

Read the notes, it's especially interesting: > in 1954, Remington Rand introduced the first high-speed drum printer, the "High Speed Off Line Printer System" for the UNIVAC computer. This printer produced 600 lines per minute at 130 characters per line. The printer used 18 kW of power and was cooled by 8 gallons per minute of chilled water. Wow.

skookumchuck 8y ago
It's a good thing we don't need listings anymore.
chiph 8y ago
A friend was a programmer in the 90's for a firm that was getting a new higher-end IBM 3090. He was in the manager's office looking over the layout for the installation, when he asked "Where is the water pump going?" Blank look, followed by the "oh shit" look.

gumby 8y ago

This is a lovely well-researched article on the origin of a number of otherwise bizarre I/O constants. E.g. the following: "...why not use 130 instead of 132? Due to the complex alignment between the 1403's chain and the print hammers, a line width divisible by 3 (such as 132) works out better."

miohtama 8y ago

50 years later we still cannot develop programming text editors with soft line wrap to satisfy everyone.

hsnewman 8y ago

I was in college learning Fortran on one of these. Half way through the class they moved us to a mainframe, I was amazed at how much more the compiler reported on the mainframe vs the 1403 (errors and warnings).

dboreham 8y ago

Interesting. I still set my shell windows to 132 chars wide, but I do that because I used VT100 terminals way back.

mark-r 8y ago
And why do you think VT100's had that capability?
tonyedgecombe 8y ago
Me too, and 66 lines long.