1970's Fax Pen Plotter ID

erco

I caught a glimpse of a weird fax machine in the 1974 British movie "Juggernaut". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juggernaut_(film)

It was basically a pen plotter printing out a handwritten message at a decent clip. I know nothing about it, but it was pretty amazing and if affordable & available, it might just fit into my museum of cool tech antiques (antechs?). It would look simply grand lined up beside my Predicta TV, Western Union Deskfax, Victrola, and player piano.

Does that sound familiar to anyone? I may have to Youtube that clip. A decent movie overall for 1974 with (Sir) Anthony Hopkins, Richard Harris, Omar Sharif. Better than your average disaster movie. The proof is, "The Towering Inferno" is free on Youtube, but Youtube only has the trailer for Juggernaut.

Inferno: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ35NuIHpJc

Juggernaut: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flBMnHojY9w

kwinn

X/Y plotters were used for that in the 70's. It was really a program on the desktop mini-computer that controlled the motion of the pen to do the actual printing. One of the labs even had the plotter doing cursive writing. From what I recall HP plotters and mini's were the most common ones I saw.

erco

Quickie phone movie of the fax (?) clip. Amazing speed & resolution for 1974 IMHO!

For fun, watch one minute (1:00-2:00) of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaCfs5Xb-EI&feature=player_embedded#t=53s

kwinn

Perhaps I am mis-remembering it, but I think the X/Y plotters were about the same speed, although the mechanism was different. The pen slid up and down a rod, and the rod moved horizontally. Pen up/down was done by rotating the rod.

erco

Yes, this is very different from those XY plotters. It's more of a polar coordinate system and I MUST have one!

Someone here knows. They just aren't talking.

Yet.

I'll just keep asking, since I need 360 more posts to reach 10K.

kwinn

Only need 358 now.

CuriousOne

In fact, there were full color faxes, with CMYK pens.

erco

Telautograph led me to the Electrowriter, looks like it:

http://www.amazon.com/Victor-Electrowriter-Communications-System-2-Page/dp/B002VHSDVI

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1967-VICTOR-Electrowriter-Early-Fax-Original-Ad-/130921309570?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e7b84a582

PJAllen

autopen

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopen


http://compare.ebay.com/like/380646631210?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

erco

PJ scores! Too bad that particular model Autopen is so huge. No room for one. And I suppose I need TWO to use one, huh?

Guess I need two desktop units.

I wonder why I like these so much: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-Z56kPpcM4.

Publison

erco wrote: »

PJ scores! Too bad that particular model Autopen is so huge. No room for one. And I suppose I need TWO to use one, huh?

Guess I need two desktop units.

I wonder why I like these so much: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-Z56kPpcM4.

I guess the big size saves the twin's college fund for a while.

Heater.

Better to make your own. Nice project. Propellers, servos and plywood. Bingo, WEB enabled remote signing.

erco

The autopen is good enough for Obama, whatever that proves. Maybe someone can use one to print his birth certificate?

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2011/05/27/is-obama-signing-patriot-act-from-france-using-autopen-machine-legal

erco

PJ's Autopen uses an interesting pantograph arm type mechanism, as opposed to the Electrowriter's single arm & polar coordinates.

http://www.damilic.com/autopen

skylight

erco wrote: »

PJ scores! Too bad that particular model Autopen is so huge. No room for one. And I suppose I need TWO to use one,

Be careful, you don't want to get writer's cramp!