3 ms·

"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