working magnetic drum stores?

From: Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk_at_yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Thu Mar 25 16:35:08 2004

Just out of curiousity, does anyone still have a working drum storage
device? wondering if any working examples have survived...

I have a half-assed plan to try and find one from somewhere at some
point. We have a Sperry unit that's way beyond repair, and don't have
anything other than the drum assembly itself anyway (the bearings still
seem good though so I might see if it can be coaxed into spinning) - but
a working demonstration would be great hooked up to one of the 1960's
machines.

I gather that telphone exchanges used to use them here in the UK so
maybe there are still a few lurking in private hands as they must have
been reasonably common at one point. The flipside of course being that
they're pretty bulky devices in themselves, and with the low reliability
they've maybe all gone to scrap years ago (unlike other peripherals of
the area which survived).

cheers

Jules
Received on Thu Mar 25 2004 - 16:35:08 GMT