[GreenKeys] friden flexowriter

[Jim Haynes]

On Fri, 8 Mar 2013, Simon Claessen wrote:
> is this a interesting machine or to be avoided. its the one with tape punch 
> and reader and the rounded square keycaps
> -- 
Well...it depends.  I was given two of them, more or less complete but
with rust and goo such that none of the moving parts moved.  I started
working on one, got it freed up to where the motor could run, then took
a plate off the bottom and a bunch of parts fell out.  So I'll probably
never get that one back together.  And I've seen warning on the web
about messing with the carriage which runs on a bunch of balls that are
likely to fall out.  I did find a complete manual on the web, after
my fiasco.  There's also a video on the web that shows one in action.
And I was given the name of a guy who repairs them, but it is quite
expensive.

The main use of the machine was as an automatic typewriter.  You could
have a canned text in the tape, and have it stop at certain places
where you type in information from the keyboard.  So you could have
a form letter that looked to the recipient as if it had been individaully
hand typed.

The other use was as a console device in early computers, since it
could have electrical input and output.  It was more costly than a
Teletype but easier to work with since communication was parallel
rather than serial and  it could have a customized code.  It was also
faster.