IBM 1401

Back then (circa late 1980s - early 1990s), we had a row of a half dozen or so 1403 Printers that printed checks and the general ledgers for various family businesses. I remember one summer day, an IBM FE working on one of the printers, and as part of his service, he 'rejuvenated' one of our attic stock printer ribbons. Family lore was that in the early 1980s, IBM ran out of these printer ribbons and shut down operations for a couple of weeks. We purchased a pallet load of the ribbons under the auspices of NEVER running out. This created the issue that the ribbons 'dried out' before use. The IBM FE used two trays, one with Tetrachloroethylene (PERC) and the other with carbon tetrachloride. Each ribbon was submerged in each chemical for a moment and then left to dry on top of an air grate in the mainframe room floor... We maintain and exhibit our operational "compusaurs" in the 1401 Demo Lab and workshop space located at the Computer History Museum... We are dealing with artifacts of..

Primary location: Minneapolis United States