High Speed Line Printers

On the right is a Computer Operator loading punch cards in to a card reader, but on the left is a High Speed Line Printer.

It is an IBM 1403-2 printer that used a printer chain.

It could print 132 character lines at 600 Lines Per Minute. (Ten lines per second).

The paper was 13 ⁵/₁₆" wide and a continuous strip folded every 11".

The lines were printed at 6 lines per inch, giving 66 lines per page.

This is a photograph of a Remote Job Entry station.
You might wonder what a JOB was.

It was a deck of punch cards that was read in to the card reader on the right,
and transmitted via a telephone line, to a mainframe computer,
where it was executed,
and the results returned down the telephone line to the RJE station
where they were printed on the High Speed Line Printer.

This printer used a printer band.

The paper was between an inked ribbon and a bank of hammers.

Diagram Behind the ribbon was a moving set of print characters.
As a character came past a position where it needed to be printed
the hammer at that position was activated to hit the paper onto the inked ribbon
onto the paper, to hit the moving character.

The diagram above reproduced by permission of IBM,
from the IBM Systems Reference Library document:
"IBM 1403 Printer Component Description" Eleventh Edition (April 1976).

Mus.Cat. NEWUC:2004.14	Mnfctr: IBM	Date: 1976	Order No: GA24-3073-10	Pages: 28
Comp: Manual	Height: 279 mm	Width: 216 mm	Thickness: 40 mm	Weight: 102 g

There were various types of line printer

That using a shuttle that went from side to side as in the IBM 1443 Line Printer.
Then one using a print chain as in the IBM 1403-2 printer.
A printer using a print train was the fastest, like the IBM 1403-N1 printer.

Later came the print band printer. As in the Memorex printer.

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