3 ms·

Obviously the 029 keypunch overlaps the lifetime of the 1401 since they are both still working :-) But seriously, the 029 was introduced in 1964 along with the

by kens 12y ago

Obviously the 029 keypunch overlaps the lifetime of the 1401 since they are both still working :-) But seriously, the 029 was introduced in 1964 along with the IBM 360 mainframe, while the 1401 wasn't withdrawn until 1971, and some were used long after that, so they had plenty of overlap. You're right that the 1403 printer is pretty cool. One interesting thing is it has a hydraulic pump running the paper feed, so it can skip lines very rapidly.

wglb 12y ago
Thanks for the clarification. The 1403 was quite an engineering marvel. Lower case, Upper case, many odd characters. There is in fact a book published that was masterd by 1403 by David Grau, I believe.
DonGateley 12y ago
And the disk drives on that 360 had hydraulic actuators to move the heads. Was that the 2301 or 2311 disk, or something else? Where I was in IBM Poughkeepsie we kept our programs on removable disks of somewhere around 16 in. in diameter. I don't remember the capacity but it was in MB. At the end of the line of disk drives sat our 029 card punch. I spent way too many hours at that punch because my fingers were so inept. There was no backspace 'cause you can't unpunch holes. We used a card based program to modify the code that accumulated on our personal disk as ISAM data sets. I set that up for my department after dropping and bursting open a very long portable card carrier (of mostly unsequenced cards) that was used before my 1967 "innovation." :-) What shocks me at the moment is the incredibly clear 50 year old mental map and images I have of that machine room and the computers in it. A 360 model 50 that I primarily used. Beside that a model 40, down the isle a model 67, behind that a 7094 and further on a big ol' model 85. Across the hall a honking model 91. No 1401's in that room, however, but lots of 1403 printers.

by kens 12y ago

wglb 12y ago

Thanks for the clarification. The 1403 was quite an engineering marvel. Lower case, Upper case, many odd characters. There is in fact a book published that was masterd by 1403 by David Grau, I believe.

DonGateley 12y ago

And the disk drives on that 360 had hydraulic actuators to move the heads. Was that the 2301 or 2311 disk, or something else? Where I was in IBM Poughkeepsie we kept our programs on removable disks of somewhere around 16 in. in diameter. I don't remember the capacity but it was in MB. At the end of the line of disk drives sat our 029 card punch. I spent way too many hours at that punch because my fingers were so inept. There was no backspace 'cause you can't unpunch holes. We used a card based program to modify the code that accumulated on our personal disk as ISAM data sets. I set that up for my department after dropping and bursting open a very long portable card carrier (of mostly unsequenced cards) that was used before my 1967 "innovation." :-) What shocks me at the moment is the incredibly clear 50 year old mental map and images I have of that machine room and the computers in it. A 360 model 50 that I primarily used. Beside that a model 40, down the isle a model 67, behind that a 7094 and further on a big ol' model 85. Across the hall a honking model 91. No 1401's in that room, however, but lots of 1403 printers.