The unknown punch

[cl3mens]

A lot of people is moving out of the office where I work, and they are tossing a lot of fun things in the garbage.

I found what seems to be an old IBM paper tape punch, some unused paper tape and some other things. But I'm having trouble finding any information about the punch... The logo suggests that it's made between 1947 and 1956. Here is the only picture I found online (I will take some pictures of mine on monday):

The page http://w1tp.com/enigma/imcpue.htm has some info, but I'm hoping for more..

"1000 IBM HAND OPERATED PAPER TAPE PUNCH: (33KB) This rare grey metal unit punches holes into paper tapes, one hole at a time.
Ralph Reinke in Germany has provided an explanation of how this device was used. He writes: ''There were special paper tapes, a bit more than 12 inches long and with printed lines for indicating 'channels'. Into this tape holes were punched with this machine corresponding to height measures in preprinted forms. The tape was cut to length and glued as a ring, then inserted in a special part of the high speed printer. This paper ring was moved forward in sync with the forms and sensed channels by wire brushes. Whenever in the program an instruction 'skip to channel n' was encountered this resulted in the progression of the paper in one quick jump. This was all found in the famous printer IBM 1403 that belonged to the IBM 1401 system and was carried through many models through IBM /360 and /370. Later this paper ring went 'virtual' and a special data structure was invented that did the very same thing.''
Paul Pierce whose wonderful computer museum is located at: http://piercefuller.com/collect/ has also written to report that this device was used to prepare paper tapes which controlled the paper feed on accounting machines so they could print information in the correct locations on preprinted forms."

 

[chuckcmagee]

That last part is correct " punches paper tape to control position of printing on printer " also known as a "channel control tape". When I worked at a service bureau from 1973 to 1979, I think I must have made 50 or 60 of them. They are made from reinforced paper tape but they wear out after about 1 year of use. You might have seen "skip to channel 1 " in a FORTRAN statement in the past. Channel 1 was always the "top of form", i.e. new page.
The IBM 402 and 407 accounting machines used them, as did the IBM 1403 printer and the IBM 1132 printer.

 

[chuckcmagee]

Oh ya, put some paper in there and punch one hole. If it turns out to be a small rectangle instead of a perfect round hole, then I am right about the device. Punch tape holes are usually round and much smaller.

 

[cl3mens]

Wow, thats a quick reply! Thanks for the information, nice to hear what it was used with more than the 1403. And yes, you're right about the holes. Rectangle shaped, about 1 * 1,5 mm in size.

 

[Chuck(G)]

That last part is correct " punches paper tape to control position of printing on printer " also known as a "channel control tape". When I worked at a service bureau from 1973 to 1979, I think I must have made 50 or 60 of them. They are made from reinforced paper tape but they wear out after about 1 year of use. You might have seen "skip to channel 1 " in a FORTRAN statement in the past. Channel 1 was always the "top of form", i.e. new page.
The IBM 402 and 407 accounting machines used them, as did the IBM 1403 printer and the IBM 1132 printer.

I'm not aware of a single mainframe with a line printer that didn't use a carriage control tape.

Some systems with on-line printing allowed you to test for channel 9 (ISTR) to see if the last printable line on a page had been reached.

Skipping to any channel that wasn't punched was a good way to pass a box of paper right through the printer. So unused channels were usually punched at TOF along with channel 1.

 

[chuckcmagee]

Oops, yes, "carriage control tape" is the proper term. And yes, just about any printer you can think of used them. In 1969, the students would always pull the "empty the box of paper trick". Fortunately, they were limited to 50 pages, so the paper would arc across the room and then collapse when the limit was reached. They would just do a loop with a top of form command in there.