Friden Flexowriter
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The Friden Flexowriter, or flexowriter as on its nameplate, was a teleprinter based on a 1940s IBM product that was spun off as an independent company and later sold to the Friden Corp. It could punch and read 6-bit paper tape. Unlike teletype machines that use the 5-bit Baudot code, the Flexowriter had upper and lower case characters. Because of this and the better quality printing produced by its IBM-designed typewriter mechanism, the Flexowriter could be used by itself to automate the production of office documents such as form letters.[1] For example, in the 1960s, United States Members of Congress used Flexowriters extensively to handle enormous volumes of routine correspondence with constituents; an advantage of this method was that these letters appeared to have been individually typed by hand. Auxiliary paper-tape readers could be attached to a Flexowriter to create an early form of "mail merge", where a long custom-created tape containing individual addresses and salutations was merged with a closed-loop form-letter and printed on continuous-form letterhead; both tapes contained embedded "control characters" to switch between readers. In the late 1960s, devices using magnetic media, such as IBM’s revolutionary Magnetic Tape Selectric Typewriter (MTST), superseded paper-tape word-processing and Flexowriters fell into disuse.
The Flexowriter was also used as an input/output device for some early computers, such as the Librascope LGP-30 , the CDC 160, and the DEC PDP-1. It was also used instead of a key punch for off-line program and data entry.
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[edit] Hardware
The Flexowriters were built like tanks— many hardened steel parts, very strong springs, and a good-sized AC motor to move all the parts. Underneath there was a large rubber roller that continuously spun. When you pressed down on a key, the end of the key lever would catch on the revolving drum and the lever would get flung over the crest of the drum, impelling the type bars towards the paper.
The basic mechanism looks just like an IBM electric typewriter from the late 1940s. Apparently there was no aluminum available, as everything seems to be made of heavy steel. As a result the platen carriage is very heavy, and when the "Carriage return" key was pressed, there was a lot of momentum in action. Woe be to you if your head or hip got in the way of the returning carriage.
The screws used in the Flexoriter were unique— having large flat heads with a very narrow screwdriver slot and a unique thread size and pitch. This may have been a conscious decision to make the units impossible for non-IBM service people to repair.
There was also an "accounting" model with an ultra-wide carriage and two-color ribbon for printing out wide financial reports. When that huge carriage did a return, the earth moved.
Friden was acquired by the Singer Corporation in 1963.
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- ^ O'Kane, Lawrence (1966): "Computer a Help to 'Friendly Doc'; Automated Letter Writer Can Dispense a Cheery Word". The New York Times, May 22, 1966, p. 348: "Automated cordiality will be one of the services offered to physicians and dentists who take space in a new medical center.... The typist will insert the homey touch in the appropriate place as the Friden automated, programmed "Flexowriter" rattles off the form letters requesting payment... or informing that the X-ray's of the patient (kidney) (arm) (stomach) (chest) came out negative."
