[rescue] Ss 4/5 speed/framebuffers& typesetters.

[Steve Sandau]

> > Typesetting machine I had cost me $2000 to add 256K memory to it! No
> > HDD. Had to reboot the machine to a special program just to copy
> > floppies and such. I actually miss that. Varityper was the company.
> > First one I had was electro-mechanical, second one was digital. The
> > digital one was a $40,000 unit new. Bought it for $250. Sold it for
> > scrap
> 
> Wow, someone else with Varitypers. I had a electro mechanical 5800 and a
> digital 6400.  My 6400 had a similar fate, scrap. I still have the lens array
> out of a 510.
> It was only yesterday.......
> 
Sounds like what I had. I had a 5816 (terminal only) and a 5818 (with
the mechanical typesetting stuff in it). The 5816 was only the size of a
small desk. The 5818 was the size of a large desk in an L shape. The
terminal was in front of you and the typesetting deck was under your
right arm. (This was the mechanical one, not the digital one.) The type
disks (film negatives of the fonts) were on a 4-disk turret in the case.
It set type by sending a beam of light through the spinning disk,
through a series of lenses to expose it on photographic paper.

The 6400 actually had a deskside case (still with just two 8" floppies)
keyboard and monitor (nice high-res vertically-oriented monochrome) that
would actually allow you to *preview* the type *before* you set it!
Amazing! The tyepsetting end was then a squat refrigerator-sized unit
that weighed, well, I think more than my family. ;)

I'd love to still have the typesetting unit; IIRC the interface was some
standard one.... RS232, maybe? Thought that a Unix box might drive it
pretty well. Never did get a PC hooked up to it, even though I know
there was software (MagnaType) that'd do that...

*sigh*

-- 
Steve Sandau
ssandau at bath.tmac.com