tractor-feed paper sizes?

From: Eric Smith <eric_at_brouhaha.com>
Date: Tue Dec 21 23:07:04 2004

Does anyone happen to know anything about obscure sizes of tractor-feed
paper?

We've now got the console typewriter of the PDP-1 at the Computer History
Museum working correctly. It is an IBM Model B electric typewriter
modified by Soroban Engineering for use as an I/O device. Soroban added
an encoder and a decoder mechanism, using switches, solenoids, bails, etc.

There was a bent leaf switch contact that resulted in incorrect character
codes on input, and two stuck solenoids that resulted in incorrect
characters typed.

Anyhow, the typewriter will accept individual sheets, but it also has
tractors for continuous forms. But the distance between the sprockets
is approximately 13 1/8", which is narrower than the sprocket spacing
of standard line-printer paper.

A Google search reveals plenty of places that sell 9 1/2" wide or
14 7/8" wide continuous forms, but are other sizes readily available?

Thanks!
Eric Smith
volunteer, Computer History Museum PDP-1 Restoration Project
http://pdp-1.org/
Received on Tue Dec 21 2004 - 23:07:04 GMT

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