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The IBM Magnetic Tape Selectric Composer

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Re: The IBM Magnetic Tape Selectric Composer

#11

Post by ebruchez »

SoftTalker wrote: post #4

Hard to believe there was enough demand for such a thing that it was economically viable -- I guess if you had a secretary that had to produce a lot of copies of virtually the same text, and you wanted it to look genuinely typewritten and not pre-printed... maybe...

Author of the posts here. There most definitely was a market, which ended only with the advent of cheaper computer-based solutions. Think magazines and small publications. The goal here was not to print a lot, but to produce a single instance of proportional, right-margin-justified, high-quality output that was ready for photocomposition. The output also definitely didn't look typewritten, but it looked as neat as what you would see in a magazine.

Re: The IBM Magnetic Tape Selectric Composer

#12

Post by ebruchez »

tdeck wrote: post #3

Here's an old ad for a later model - the IBM Magnetic Card Selectric typewriter - it demonstrates the functionality pretty well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW_jJjUarp0

The Mag Card was essentially a word processor, and did not compete with the MT/SC. But IBM also introduced a Mag Card Composer, which did. There really were two very different use cases: general-purpose word processing one one hand, and composition on the other hand. The latter implied proportional spacing, justification, good-looking fonts, and accessories such as high-quality paper and specially-formulated ribbons.

Re: The IBM Magnetic Tape Selectric Composer

#13

Post by ebruchez »

retrac wrote: post #10
SoftTalker wrote: post #4

Hard to believe there was enough demand for such a thing that it was economically viable -- I guess if you had a secretary that had to produce a lot of copies of virtually the same text, and you wanted it to look genuinely typewritten and not pre-printed... maybe...

Selectric typewriters made something that looked more like print than the typical typewriter. The Selectric type ball mechanism made multiple rapid impressions, producing a crisp dark letter, and the high end models had proportional typefaces. The Composer could even do justification. An example of Selectric Composer output: http://www.quadibloc.com/comp/images/ps_sco2.jpg

> The Selectric type ball mechanism made multiple rapid impressions

Not sure if this is what you mean but no, the type element would just hit the paper through the ribbon once. The crispness comes entirely from the formulation of the carbon film ribbon.

Re: The IBM Magnetic Tape Selectric Composer

#14

Post by themadturk »

ebruchez wrote: post #11
SoftTalker wrote: post #4

Hard to believe there was enough demand for such a thing that it was economically viable -- I guess if you had a secretary that had to produce a lot of copies of virtually the same text, and you wanted it to look genuinely typewritten and not pre-printed... maybe...

Author of the posts here. There most definitely was a market, which ended only with the advent of cheaper computer-based solutions. Think magazines and small publications. The goal here was not to print a lot, but to produce a single instance of proportional, right-margin-justified, high-quality output that was ready for photocomposition. The output also definitely didn't look typewritten, but it looked as neat as wh…

I remember encountering one of these machines in 1973 or 74 when I was on the high school newspaper staff. We visited another high school in our district that had one and I watched it output beautiful proportional, justified newspaper column-width text. I was amazed.

Re: The IBM Magnetic Tape Selectric Composer

#15

Post by Johnny555 »

retrac wrote: post #10
SoftTalker wrote: post #4

Hard to believe there was enough demand for such a thing that it was economically viable -- I guess if you had a secretary that had to produce a lot of copies of virtually the same text, and you wanted it to look genuinely typewritten and not pre-printed... maybe...

Selectric typewriters made something that looked more like print than the typical typewriter. The Selectric type ball mechanism made multiple rapid impressions, producing a crisp dark letter, and the high end models had proportional typefaces. The Composer could even do justification. An example of Selectric Composer output: http://www.quadibloc.com/comp/images/ps_sco2.jpg

Wikipedia has a print sample from the Composer system:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Sample_o...

on their Selectric page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Selectric

Re: The IBM Magnetic Tape Selectric Composer

#16

Post by ebruchez »

themadturk wrote: post #14
ebruchez wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author of the posts here. There most definitely was a market, which ended only with the advent of cheaper computer-based solutions. Think magazines and small publications. The goal here was not to print a lot, but to produce a single instance of proportional, right-margin-justified, high-quality output that was ready for photocomposition. The output also definitely didn't look typewritten, but it looked as neat as wh…

I remember encountering one of these machines in 1973 or 74 when I was on the high school newspaper staff. We visited another high school in our district that had one and I watched it output beautiful proportional, justified newspaper column-width text. I was amazed.

Great experience. I love to hear stories of people who actually used or saw these machines in use.

Re: The IBM Magnetic Tape Selectric Composer

#19

Post by ebruchez »

RecycledEle wrote: post #18
RecycledEle wrote: post #17

A guy on YouTube has a tape system: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-Ne8CAbcaMk

There's more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWef9lfudAA

This is an MT/ST Model IV. It's been on eBay for a long time, but the guy doesn't seem eager to sell it. The videos are cool though, because they show the details of the machine, including it's relays bank. The typewriter is missing at least it top cover. It would be great to work on this system, but somehow it should be acquired first ($1,000 < price <= $30,000).

Re: The IBM Magnetic Tape Selectric Composer

#20

Post by timonoko »

I tried to edit 80-page book on paper tape in 1977. It was more than 10 rolls weighing 10 kilos. Finnish Government said NO to such waste.

So I edited it on 8 kilo core memory holding few pages, hoping that the core stays intact overnight.

Final blow was when professor doubted if he can accept thesis written by a computer. Because it was little bit like cheating.

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