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From: martin@mipos3.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: 1403 Printers  (was Re: IBM 1130 Nostalgia)
Message-ID: <436@mipos3.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 9-Feb-87 22:10:17 EST
Article-I.D.: mipos3.436
Posted: Mon Feb  9 22:10:17 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 11-Feb-87 07:17:57 EST
References: <504@PSUECLA> <1029@phred.UUCP> <210@pembina.alberta.UUCP> <219@devon.UUCP>
Reply-To: martin@mipos3.UUCP (Martin Harriman)
Organization: Intel, Santa Clara, CA
Lines: 19

My favorite 1403 memory is of the evening we decided to test the safety
interlock on the 1403 cover (the cover was driven open and closed by a
screw drive an a "little" electric motor, so they put an override on it
to keep it from removing the operator's arm).  We opened the cover (grind,
whirr, grind, grind), put a full box of cards in the opening, and pressed
"Cover Close."  Whirr...grind...whirrr...whirrr...shred...clunk, right
through the 2000 card box without even straining.  Gosh, swing shift sure
was fun back then.  (Lucky us, we used blank cards, and not some poor goniff's
2000 card PL/I program.)

My other fun 1403 memory was the system's behavior during a crash; all of the
printer covers would open (this was OS/VS2, release god-only-knows:  I don't
remember whether this was hard crash, or just a HASP crash that caused this).
It was great--the computer room would get very quiet:  no card reader (!),
no printers, and then every audible alarm would go off, and the line printer
covers would all start going up at once.

  --Martin Harriman
    *I hope my employers have no opinions about the 1403 at all*