At 03:26 PM 3/1/02 -0700, you wrote:
>They probably used polyester tape (1930?? probably not)
>rather than paper. Lasts a lot longer than paper.
>I have seen 'archive' programs punched on aluminum tape. Wouldn't burn and
>had a much longer reuse life (bootstrap for a Data General computer).
>
>A thick paper tape would probably have done the trick, with direct drive
>of the lamps (but they were more likely 100W).
>
>I vaguely remember seeing 1960's program called 'You asked for it' where
>they showed banks of relays and small bulbs that were used in the Times Square
>display. I don't remember what they showed for the message encoder.

I've cut paper tape on Telex machines, not all that long ago either (maybe
1975).
I understand they used a more oily version to run CNC machines before the mylar
tape became popular. Nothing much electronic in those things (Telexes), pins
and coils and motors and such like. Man, has editing gotten easier (you could
delete characters on the paper tape by punching all the holes as a kind of
NOP, but when you sent the Telex (in my case it would be to Japan or China),
you paid by the second (probably at 50 times the current direct-dial rate
in real terms) for this thing to clack away at 110 baud (not a
misprint), including the error characters (it punched several NOPs for a
carriage
return to allow the mechanical carriage to slam back to the left). A somewhat
similar mechanism to IBM's incredibly popular Selectric "ball" typewriters,
but it used a cylinder that rotated and moved up and down then thunked the
paper. Upper case only and a few characters. "HOW R U? PLS SHIP VIA KOBIYASHI
MARU SEPT 3. BIBI"

One of the original "programming" (sequence programming) method uses the cards
in Jacquard (sp?) looms. You see people hopping the MTR (subway/tube) in
Hong Kong carrying them from time to time. Player pianos are another similar
idea. All pre-electronics, as I suspect these 1930-ish devices were.

Best regards,




>R
>
>Douglas Butler wrote:
> >
> > I'll bet it was just paper tape and mechanical finger contacts.  The
> > ASR33 teletypes I once used worked that way.  The fingers were
> > retracted, the tape advanced, the fingers extended and found holes or
> > not, cycle repeats faster than you can see.  Centainly fast enough for
> > scrolling signs.  The tape would last a few hours, by which time the
> > news would change anyway.  The key is that the fingers never touch the
> > edges of the holes.  The contacts driven by the fingers could probably
> > drive the light bulbs directly, no relays or other amplifiers (1/4A @
> > 110V for a 25W bulb).
> >
> > Sherpa Doug
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Jinx [mailto:joecolquitt@CLEAR.NET.NZ]
> > > Sent: Friday, March 01, 2002 3:59 PM
> > > To: PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
> > > Subject: Re: [OT] :Old (ancient) message scrolling
> > >
> > >
> > > > That was a time when paper tape was all the rage
> > >
> > > Had the idea that the name "ticker tape" was somehow
> > > associated with those displays. I believe the properties of
> > > materials like selenium as a photo-detector, if that's what
> > > was used, were known at the time, and from there then it
> > > would be fairly easy to switch valves or relays
> > >
> > > The displays show no flicker or strobing (unlikely that they
> > > are in perfect synch with the camera every time) as they
> > > aren't scanned or "synthesised", but directly driven in almost
> > > a bit-mapping way, and that simplicity is appealing, particularly
> > > as the results are at least equal to what can be accomplished
> > > today
> > >
>
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