IBM 1403 Printer

[@mrz80]

Imagine 8 or 9 of these things all churning away at the same time! :D That was life in the 80s when I worked at NASA/GSFC. We replaced 6 1403 printers with a 3800 laser printer, but kept two of 'em around for one high-profile researcher who HATED change. He was the reason we kept the card reader/punch online for as many years as we did. :D

[@PCFixer]

It's not hating change"; that high profile researcher KNOWS that hardware and software and knows how to use it effectively; he has a workflow with it that WON'T be disrupted! It's the same reason why musicians keep using the old Atari 520STFMs; they know the machines and keep spares in the closet in case one dies.

[@mrkkitson]

I repaired these for several years working for IBM. These were really good printers!

[@RobertDeloyd]

yes they were :)

[@mikemcgonegal1616]

I was a computer operator in the late '60s and was very familiar with these. It was the best printer out there at the time. I remember we had a demo program that would play "Anchors Aweigh" on it.

[@Gr8thxAlot]

Our college used some variant of this in the mid 1990's. (Maybe a 4248.) These things were so well engineered and reliable. It's amazing how fast it printed without fail. Our lab fees partially went to the massive amount of paper these bad boys could output.

[@rogerioayres]

Wow!!!! That's a real hot machine! His speed is still the envy of today!

[@maurobrandt3510]

Trabalhei com uma maquina dessas, durante muitos anos, na decada de 80. Processamento de dados so estava começando. Boas lembranças. (Mauro, Londrina, Brasil)

[@PappyGunn]

When I studied engineering, a few years before desktop computers came out, we used a mainframe (and used FORTRAN). We had a room full of these babies, and a couple of big monster chain printers that prined five (?) lines at a time. To think people thought computers would spell the end of the paper industry! We went through paper like it... grew on trees...

[@Goearthtour]

Loud as hell! Operated two at a time Air Force early 90s. Still trying to get my tinnitus approved. Ears have been ringing ever since.

[@RobertDeloyd]

I used to print a whole lot of paper on the old 1403 printer when I worked at Mattel Toys in early 1970

[@gilbertmella4368]

Damn! That's my beloved real printer when I was in college in the 70's. Still costs a lot of money at Ebay

[@benheideveld4617]

I remember IBM 1403 the rotary impact line printers to make a loud bang when someone put the same character on all 132 positions on a single line of his output :-)

[@douro20]

Do they still have the extended Latin character chain which came with that printer or was it broken?

[@douro20]

I'd like to see a model N1.

[@michaelsrsa9688]

This is definitely a DMZ Koschei Complex Reference.

[@michaelsrsa9688]

This totally reminds me of Multiplayer: Double Agent

[@danielmehta5733]

Thank you, Mr. Srsa

[@storytellerzzz]

Hello Daniel, can I use this footage in non-commercial educational video?

[@danielmehta5733]

Валерий Толич yes

[@storytellerzzz]

@@danielmehta5733 thank you!

[@BrentCWilliams]

I think this is an older model, rather than the N1's I used to see everywhere. At the very end of the video, there's a comment that the program is printing the powers of two up to 2**300. I remember writing a program at USC in Fortran in 1976 or 1977 that did exactly that... We calculated the powers of two that would fit on a single line of 132 characters.

[@operator6855]

The N1 cover would automatically open when it ran out of paper. When I used to work at J&J the operators told me in days gone by they used to go over to the pub across the road. They would attach one of the window blinds to the 1403 N1 top cover. When the blind went up they would know the printer had run out of paper. One of them would return to refill the printer.

[@knightwatchman]

@@operator6855 I have a good N1 story. When I was a young operator, I worked in a computer room that got down to 65 degrees at night with just two of us on shift. In order to warm up I climbed atop the N1 (it did throw some heat) cover and layed down on it. Well ... the cover tried to come up and because I was atop it, the screws that raised the cover stripped. We had to call IBM Service. When the CE showed up, he was baffled. He asked me and I quote, "What the hell happened here? I've never seen this before!" I told him I inadvertently left a full box of printer paper atop the printer when the cover tried to come up. He looked at me skeptically but accepted my excuse. We had to manually watch for out of paper for a few days because IBM had to order parts to fix it. Luckily the operations supervisor (who was not working at the time of my night shift) bought my "story".

[@PMCMikePorter]

May I use this footage in a training course for document production and distribution fundamentals? Students will be paying to take the course.

[@danielmehta5733]

You can use the footage

[@adriansrsa90]

This totally reminds me of Fortnite: Impostors

[@operator6855]

If you were to say have a box have one part paper loaded on the 1403 and the rotate tape broke you would have the box of paper at the rear of the printer in about 30 seconds.

[@ericaricketts8363]

I didn't even see anything printed,???

[@henrikgustav2294]

This is orgasmic

[@jamesslick4790]

I would take my Inkjet about an hour to do that...! 👍😂👍

[@markjohnson4962]

C'mon. We know what moving greenbar looks like. We know what chain printers sound like. We want to see it actually working.