Editing Line printer (section)

== Origins ==
[[File:IBM 403 Accounting Machine.jpg|thumb|A type bar line printer was incorporated in the [[IBM 402]] and 403 accounting machines.]]
[[File:IBM 729 Tape Drives.nasa.jpg|thumb|An [[IBM 716]] line printer, based on the [[IBM 407]] wheel mechanism, attached to an [[IBM 7090]] mainframe at NASA's [[Goddard Spaceflight Center]] during [[Project Mercury]].]] 
Tabulators built by the U.S. Census Bureau for the 1910 census could print their results.<ref>{{cite book |last=Durand |first= Hon. E. Dana |title=Tabulation by Mechanical Means — Their Advantages and Limitations, volume VI |publisher= Transactions of the Fifteenth International Congress on Hygiene and Demography |date= September 23–28, 1912}}</ref> Prior to that, tabulator operators had to write down totals from counter wheels onto tally sheets.<ref>{{cite web |title=1920 |work=IBM Archives: Exhibits: History of IBM: 1920s  |url=https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/history/year_1920.html |quote=A printing tabulator is introduced by C-T-R.}}</ref> IBM developed a series of printing accounting machines, beginning in 1920. The 285 Numeric Printing Tabulator could read 150 cards per minute. The 405, introduced in 1934, could print at 80 lines per minute. It had 88 type bars, one for each print position, with 43 alphanumeric bars on the left, followed by 45 numeric-only bars.<ref>{{cite web |title=IBM 405 electric punched card accounting machine |work=IBM Archives: Exhibits: Vintage views of IBM products |url=http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/vintage/vintage_4506VV4006.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060911183046/http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/vintage/vintage_4506VV4006.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 11, 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Frank |last=da Cruz |title=The IBM 405 Alphabetical Accounting Machine |date=2019 |work=Columbia University Computing History |url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/405.html}}</ref> The [[IBM 402]] series, introduced after World War II, had a similar print arrangement and was used by IBM in early computing devices, including the [[IBM CPC|IBM Card-Programmed Electronic Calculator]].<ref>{{cite web |first=Frank |last=da Cruz |title=The IBM Card Programmed Calculator Alphabetical Accounting Machine |date=2003 |work=Columbia University Computing History |url=http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/cpc.html}}</ref>

IBM's first commercial computer, the [[IBM 701]], introduced in 1952, used a line printer, the [[IBM 716]], that was based on the type wheel [[IBM 407]] accounting machine. The 716 was incorporated in subsequent mainstream computers in the [[IBM 700/7000 series]].

An early drum printer was the "Potter Flying Typewriter", in 1952. "Instead of working laboriously, one character at a time, it prints whole lines at once, 300 lines per minute, on a paper band. ... Heart of the machine is a continuously spinning disk with the necessary letters and numbers on its rim. ... As the disk revolves, 80 electrically operated hammers tap the back of the paper against an inked ribbon in contact with the disk, thus printing the proper characters in the proper places on the line."<ref>{{cite magazine | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,822252,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101125191105/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,822252,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=November 25, 2010 |
magazine=Time Magazine |
title=New Gadgets |
date=March 10, 1952 }}</ref>