01-12-2019, 11:58 PM
I remember seeing one of these working in the early 70s.
I was fixing a monitor in the N American department of a large stockbrokers near London Bridge. They had a 75 baud transatlantic direct line which gave them a continuous live feed.
They sat round a long, wide desk with a central shelf unit for files, etc.
I was fascinated by the ingenious system that someone had provided for them.
The ticker tape machine sat at one end and a channel had been fixed to both sides and the end of the shelf unit in which the ticker tape ran.
After leaving the print head it ran along the desk unit. The senior partner sat next to the machine, so was the first to read it. The further along the desk and back up the other side staff sat, the lower down the pecking order they were!
Eventually the tape ran back to the machine before ending up in a large waste basket. I can only assume the paper feed mechanism was specially modified to pull the tape along its lengthy route!
The beauty of the system was that, as the tape was just above eye height, everybody on both sides of the table had the opportunity to read it so, if those ahead of them were busy on the phone, or whatever, and missed an important item, it was still likely to be spotted further down the line.
I was fixing a monitor in the N American department of a large stockbrokers near London Bridge. They had a 75 baud transatlantic direct line which gave them a continuous live feed.
They sat round a long, wide desk with a central shelf unit for files, etc.
I was fascinated by the ingenious system that someone had provided for them.
The ticker tape machine sat at one end and a channel had been fixed to both sides and the end of the shelf unit in which the ticker tape ran.
After leaving the print head it ran along the desk unit. The senior partner sat next to the machine, so was the first to read it. The further along the desk and back up the other side staff sat, the lower down the pecking order they were!
Eventually the tape ran back to the machine before ending up in a large waste basket. I can only assume the paper feed mechanism was specially modified to pull the tape along its lengthy route!
The beauty of the system was that, as the tape was just above eye height, everybody on both sides of the table had the opportunity to read it so, if those ahead of them were busy on the phone, or whatever, and missed an important item, it was still likely to be spotted further down the line.
