IBM Selectric used as printer on Apple ][+

From: Desie Hay <desieh_at_southcom.com.au>
Date: Mon May 18 03:06:06 1998

-----Original Message-----
From: Sam Ismail <dastar_at_wco.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
Date: Sunday, 17 May 1998 15:13
Subject: IBM Selectric used as printer on Apple ][+


>
>I saw a very cool thing today. I stopped off at a garage sale and found
>some old computer books (a couple on UCSD Pascal, the p-system, a FORTH
>book). The old lady tending the cash box said her husband had a big old
>Apple that they wanted to get rid of. Thinking it just might be a Lisa I
>followed up on this lead and went and got the old man. He took me to his
>other house where he had it stored. It turned out it was an Apple ][+,
>but it did have something cool about it. The old man told me that the ][+
>was his son's and he used it when he was at Stanford. Around the time a
>local bank was selling off a bunch of IBM Selectric typewriters that were
>being used as computer printers. They had an external box which provided
>the control mechanism for the computer. The son had a friend who was an
>electronics wiz and so he built an interface card for the Apple to drive
>the control box, thereby allowing the Apple to use the Selectric as a
>printer. Pretty cool. I dug through his manuals and found the schemtic
>for the adaptor card. I passed on it because I already had enough stuff
>for the day and the beast isn't going anywhere anytime soon. I'll
>probably go back for it someday (just the control box, the Selectric and
>the interface card).
>
>
>Sam Alternate e-mail:
dastar_at_siconic.com
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
>Ever onward.
>
>                 September 26 & 27...Vintage Computer Festival 2
>                   See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
>                        [Last web page update: 05/11/98]
>
email:  desieh_at_southcom.com.au
 desieh_at_bigfoot.com
 museum_curator_at_hotmail.com
Apple Lisa Web Page:
http://www.southcom.com.au/~desieh/index.htm
yes in the early 1980s this modifacation was quite popular because the price
of printers was ofthen cost more than the
computer itself. these was also one where it fit over the keys of the
typewritier and had a interface card and it pushed the keys
when somthing was menat to be printed.....
cool eh?
Received on Mon May 18 1998 - 03:06:06 BST

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