4 ms·

What is a "tulip-wheel printer"? I get no search results. If you meant "daisy-wheel printer", wikipedia says that was 1970 and later. [1] Just as general inter

What is a "tulip-wheel printer"? I get no search results. If you meant "daisy-wheel printer", wikipedia says that was 1970 and later. [1] Just as general interest, not because I have reason to think it was used for his thesis, the "Friden Flexowriter" was quite heavily used with computers back then, including at MIT (don't know about Harvard), and it had many models -- one of which, interestingly enough, supported justification, the "Justowriter". [2] It was mentioned in Ted Nelson's Computer Lib/Dream Machines. [3] P.S. the poor guy might even have had to suffer with 110 baud, which was not uncommon back then -- and was slower than reading speed. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_wheel_printing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_wheel_printing [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friden_Flexowriter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friden_Flexowriter [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Lib/Dream_Machines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Lib/Dream_Machines

squokko 4y ago
"Tulip wheel" is hilarious because a print wheel looks a lot like a daisy and nothing like a tulip.
- jleyank 4y ago
  What I remember is a cup-shaped daisy wheel rather than the typical flat one. The cup rotated in the horizontal plane while the individual “keys” were vertical and the hammer strike was inside the rotating cup. I’m trying to google this but man, that was a while ago…. Might be mis remembering but it might also have been a patent dodge. Had a “normal” Daisy wheel printer back then, bought it with my kaypro. This was earlier when I was writing up, not when I had money.
  - kps 4y ago
    ‘Thimble printer’ is the generic term; the NEC Spinwriter series is the primary example. https://typewriterdatabase.com/197x-nec-spinwriter-7720.7239.typewriter https://typewriterdatabase.com/197x-nec-spinwriter-7720.7239... https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/input-output/14/356/1783 https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/input-output/14/3...
    - jleyank 4y ago
      Spinwriter was sticking in my mind, and the computer museum came to my rescue: https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/input-output/14/356/1783 https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/input-output/14/3... Whomever called it tulip didn’t know flower shapes either. I’m a hacker not a botanist :-).
  - squokko 4y ago
    Wow, amazing. There was a daisy wheel and a tulip wheel and they were different technologies. Apologies to GP

squokko 4y ago

"Tulip wheel" is hilarious because a print wheel looks a lot like a daisy and nothing like a tulip.

jleyank 4y ago
What I remember is a cup-shaped daisy wheel rather than the typical flat one. The cup rotated in the horizontal plane while the individual “keys” were vertical and the hammer strike was inside the rotating cup. I’m trying to google this but man, that was a while ago…. Might be mis remembering but it might also have been a patent dodge. Had a “normal” Daisy wheel printer back then, bought it with my kaypro. This was earlier when I was writing up, not when I had money.
- kps 4y ago
  ‘Thimble printer’ is the generic term; the NEC Spinwriter series is the primary example. https://typewriterdatabase.com/197x-nec-spinwriter-7720.7239.typewriter https://typewriterdatabase.com/197x-nec-spinwriter-7720.7239... https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/input-output/14/356/1783 https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/input-output/14/3...
  - jleyank 4y ago
    Spinwriter was sticking in my mind, and the computer museum came to my rescue: https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/input-output/14/356/1783 https://www.computerhistory.org/revolution/input-output/14/3... Whomever called it tulip didn’t know flower shapes either. I’m a hacker not a botanist :-).
- squokko 4y ago
  Wow, amazing. There was a daisy wheel and a tulip wheel and they were different technologies. Apologies to GP