4 ms·

I can almost smell the static burn of the teletype paper, and that weird feeling of chemicals under your nails if you scratched it.

• zabzonk 5y ago
  What? The paper on a teletype terminal was ... paper. No weird chremicals or static. A teletype was basically an impact printer (plus maybe a tape punch) with a keyboard and a serial interface. I've used not a few of them.
  • classichasclass 5y ago
    These are from Silent 700 thermal teletypes, so they're thermal-coated paper, not regular plain paper.
    • zabzonk 5y ago
      OK - there were a lot of weird printers around way back when. For example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Printer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX_Printer and we had something similar from IBM (though much more sophisticated) connected to one of our IBM 4381s, which few people knew how to use (except me) or why you would want to (including me).
      • thaeli 5y ago
        The Silent 700 paper is the same stuff as thermal receipt printers we're all familiar with nowadays - I use thermal fax paper in mine. I understand that in the old days the paper was nastier than what we have now, though. Plus most workplaces probably bought the cheapest grade they possibly could, and I don't think they even _make_ thermal paper that cheap anymore.