wires magnets and memory

We spend some more time with some more vintage tech. This time we look at audio recorded on spools of wire, teletype equipment for input and output, and the magnetic core. Check out the links below to catch some nifty videos of this stuff being demonstrated and explained.

Here’s a video on the wire recorders.

Retro Tech: The Wire Recorder

Here’s an article about the history of magnetic tape data recording.

The History of Magnetic Tape and Computing: A 65-Year-Old Marriage Continues to Evolve

Here are a couple of videos of an old teletype machine doing its thing.

Friden Flexowriter SPD, Paper Tape driven Typewriter

1959 Friden Flexowriter SFD punching a paper tape and reading a tape.

Here are some articles on the history of typing, typewriters, and keyboards.

Typing Through Time

The History of the Computer Keyboard

Here’s more info about project Whirlwind, a computer originally built to make a flight simulator for the United States navy.

Project Whirlwind | The MIT 150 Exhibition

Gambling on Whirlwind: How the US Navy Spent $3 Million+ and Got a Computer Game

And here’s a video that explains and demonstrates magnetic core memory, a system that was in use for near to 30 years—long time in computer land.

Core Memory Explained and Demonstrated