weird find: papertape "patch" puncher

From: Paul Koning <pkoning_at_equallogic.com>
Date: Thu Mar 4 08:15:45 2004

>>>>> "Fred" == Fred N van Kempen <waltje_at_pdp11.nl> writes:

 Fred> Hi all, Recently I found this really cute, but weird-looking
 Fred> thingie. It seems to be a handheld tool that allowed operators,
 Fred> field engineers and so on to manually punch a bit of code onto
 Fred> paper tape, or to modify (patch) an existing tape.

 Fred> It was made by, or distributed by "Data Processing Accessories"
 Fred> in the U.K.

 Fred> Ideas, anyone?

I remember those.

>From what I remember, the more common use for those probably was
splicing or repairing torn tape. If what you're talking about is the
thing I saw, it's a metal base plate with a full set of holes, and a
set of pins where the sprocket holes are. There are flip-down covers
that hold tape onto the base plate. You can hold down a torn tape
with the two ends lined up, then tape them together with special
adhesive tape that's the width of regular paper tape, pre-punched with
a full set of holes. You can then flip down the top lid, which has
guide holes for a punch pin, and run the pin down the holes to clean
up any overhang from the patching tape.

And yes, if you need to make a change to a tape, you can do it with
this as well, provided the change only requires adding holes, not
subtracting them. (Well, I suppose you could subtract by taping
pieces of solid tape over the spot to be changed, and re-punching the
holes you want to keep. That requires using the right kind of tape --
a lot of adhesive tape is transparent, and that wouldn't work well at
all for tape run through optical readers.)

    paul
Received on Thu Mar 04 2004 - 08:15:45 GMT