On 16 March 2015 at 16:21, Harold Hallikainen wrote: > The first ink jet printer I ever saw was an Olivetti that printed one dot > at a time. The print head moved back and forth across the paper really > fast. Somebody - a Japanese company I think - the name "Juki" suggests itself - made a "dot matrix" printer that printed a dot at a time. From memory it may have used a vertically long hammer and a fluted rotating drum behind the paper. The hammer struck (or was meant to) in the column where the dot belonged and the current flute position behind the paper provided an impact point for the hammer through the ribbon and paper. I assume that the flutes rotated vertically by 7 dot positions as the carriage moved one dot horizontally. And the hammer would have had to strike the paper 7 times per character column (for a continuous vertical line). Whereas a "normal" dot matrix printer made a sound like a muted shrieking wailing banshee with a bad cold, the one-dot-at-a-time printer made a sound akin to the space time continuum being torn open, I imagine. I suspect they did not last especially long. __________________________ My first home printer was a Creed 7B. Agh! Wow! Russell --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .