VINTAGE PIXELS
VINTAGE PIXELS
This photo was taken at work on 1981-11-26, using a vidicon tube motion camera that we had for professional use.
As we wanted to know if it was possible to extract an image on paper, we devised an electronic interface between the camera and an IBM electric typewriter, which used a ball with all the letters around it (does anybody remember these typewriters ?)
It seems that the typewriter understood the grey levels and gave an acceptable rendition.
I stand in the middle between my colleagues. I have also scanned an extract of this picture using the maximum definition of my scanner, and thus giving an idea of the pixels.
Real vintage, aren't they ?
This photo was taken at work on 1981-11-26, using a vidicon tube motion camera that we had for professional use.
As we wanted to know if it was possible to extract an image on paper, we devised an electronic interface between the camera and an IBM electric typewriter, which used a ball with all the letters around it (does anybody remember these typewriters ?)
It seems that the typewriter understood the grey levels and gave an acceptable rendition.
I stand in the middle between my colleagues. I have also scanned an extract of this picture using the maximum definition of my scanner, and thus giving an idea of the pixels.
Real vintage, aren't they ?
I am amazed at the detail that the ball was instructed to use an appropriate character for each strike.
ReplyDeleteStephen Russell
ReplyDeleteEven today, I am also still amazed, but I am sure that we had no other printing possibility than typewriters (with the exception of Telex printers of course).
The first electric typewriters were like the old ones, with electric motion for the characters. Then came the IBM ball typewriters which were a revolution.
We also had a 256 steps programmable calculating machine, the output of which was also through the same model of typewriters.
My first digital camera was a modified TV camera for stills. It wrote the files to a floppy disk. By that time there were dot matrix printers, even color ones, capable of printing an image file.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Mavica
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/GwidsjI4fM5SVJ4f917cj8YJsN3U3OoqRU5vfbV_808A4SSbQ7u2kN58DcSpdsoeTWKZDElLnkAmzWEDNK-07ULF5IucJPYNNxM4=s0
My first digital camera was a modified TV camera for stills. It wrote the files to a floppy disk. By that time there were dot matrix printers, even color ones, capable of printing an image file.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Mavica
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/649Y38QT_drwkmF0gSXleozJZj6U0yeVGFiiSMmqjn4-bslI_hShMTyUenLYPiJ17cZBTqD5nTgMc92TVG_LLfHxttVj3lHcUZLq=s0
I remember the IBM Selectrics very well. My all-time favourite typewriter. Had no idea they could be used this way, though. Fantastic!
ReplyDeleteOshi Shikigami My first camera was the same, provided by my work place. They were boxy and heavy and if I recall correctly, the floppy discs filled up fast. Still it was a pretty amazing camera. We were limited on how many shots we could print because of ink costs. All things considered, I found the camera much more convenient than film at the time. Not necessarily producing better images, but definitely an easy approach.
ReplyDeleteLaurent Truillet The Selectric was a fantastic typewriter, even though they weighed a ton. I loved the touch of the keyboard.
ReplyDeleteI think it was about 30 shots on a floppy. And it wrote them in about 30 seconds or so. No shooting ahead, either. And yes, Resolution was NTC field scan so about 300x400 pixels I believe.
ReplyDeleteWonderful share Laurent Truillet I too remember the Selectric, and it was (to me) fun to use. Well if you had to type letters at work it was fun because of the way the ball moved. If you could type without looking at your hands, we tried to see if we could type as fast as we could and finish a line before it did. One time, one girl did and we created the "Selectric Slayer" award and taped it over her desk. Had not thought of that one in ages, thanks.
ReplyDeleteMargaret Siemers
ReplyDeleteYour comment also brings back more memories to me.
First, I must say that I never typed on such a machine, for it was the secretary’s job to type letters and technical reports. Not because it was considered degrading to use a typewriter, but because we were long before the PC era, and most of the « normal » people had never used a keyboard in their life. So the secretary was the only person who could type efficiently.
I also remember that this was probably the first machine that enabled a person to type faster than the movement of the older « hammer » system.
And this machine (but it was not the first one) had some kind of memory for the recurrent sentences. This was particularly useful in French. While in English, a letter is usually ended by « Yours Sincerely » or some other greeting of the sort, the current practice in French was to sign off with « Veuillez agrĂ©er, Monsieur, l’expression de mes salutations distinguĂ©es » ! With a memory writer, one single key would do the job.
By the way, this ridiculous French sentence has now become obsolete. Like in English, we sign off with a short « Bien Ă vous » or « Meilleures salutations ».
So if I may be allowed to use the vintage form of polite greetings once more, let me now sign off with the English equivalent of what it was in French :
« Please accept, Mrs. Siemers, the expression of my respectful sentiments. »
Laurent J. Truillet, Esq.
I'm taking her award away from her, I think she knew a trick the rest of us didn't. lol
ReplyDeleteWe had the one Selectric for about 10 of us, we all had older Underwood's on our desks, but the Selectric was special and had to be requested to be used. It did more things and better/faster but was either too expensive to replace them all or they were seeing just how well it could be used by each of us in our duties.
These days it sounds crazy to say that, but things were very different in office culture back then.
Perhaps I will let her keep the award after all. ; )
There was a version of the Seletric, that was used in typesetting. It used the same ball heads, and used a carbon ribbon, that was on a plastic base, and was not rewound or reused. Very clean type.
ReplyDeleteIt was capable of proportional spacing of characters too. However, it had to be typed, one line at a time, into memory (It had "coil memory" I believe, at most about 1k.) So you typed a line, then hit print, and it popped out a line of crisp text all justified. It was so expensive that most shops only had one.