PDP-8/L - fire hazard?

From: Doug Yowza <yowza_at_yowza.com>
Date: Fri Aug 14 05:16:43 1998

I don't think the PDP-8 is much of a fire hazard, but some old computer
equipment can be. This is from an old Usenet article I just bumped into:

<<
Those are the New Old disks. The OLD disks used hydraulically
driven pistons (oil) to move the heads across the drive. The
pump was driven by the same Very Large motor (probably one horse
or more) which spun the disk. They held a LOT of data though:
IBM 2311's held somewhere close to 20 megabytes, if memory serves.
(Memory may not be serving today, and my manuals are all at home).

Besides having the nasty habit of leaking oil all over the floor,
both these and the linear motor voice coil machines DID tend to
walk around a lot. Some of those drives (Memorex or IBM, can't
remember which) also liked to catch fire.
>>

-- Doug
Received on Fri Aug 14 1998 - 05:16:43 BST