[GreenKeys] INKTRONIC on EBay

[Jones, Douglas W]

On Sun, Jun 26, 2016 at 2:35 PM, Lester Veenstra <m0ycm at veenstras.com> wrote:
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/1966-Vintage-Antique-TELETYPE-INKTRONIC-Receive-Only-Set-TelePrinter-Parallel/231990393069?hash=item3603b478ed:g:TIwAAOSwOVpXbZu5

Brings back so many memories of sticky blue ink that smeared over everything.  On the other hand, the whole idea of electrostatic deflection of flying ink drops to make them paint letters on the page is genuinely cool, and the machine could print so much faster than all but one other printer we had in Department 1227 of Bell Labs.  That printer was a wet-process Tektronics graphics printer.  Which do you prefer:  A printer that runs at 1200 baud and gets little blue indellible ink spots all over your hands and clothing if you handle the printout too soon after printing, or a printer that runs at 1200 baud and fills the room with organic solvent fumes while delivering the printout wet into your hands?

I used the damned things in the summer of 1973-74 when I worked at Murray Hill.  Department 1227 was Acoustics Research, under Max Matthews.

I do hope some museum gets the thing, but I think we're lucky that getting ink for it is likely to be difficult, and therefore, restoration to operation is unlikely.

              Doug Jones
              jones at cs.uiowa.edu