The key to make this happen was to define a new mode of output which bypassed the internal stencil fonts. Dr Hershey not only saw this possibility, but possessed a keen interest in calligraphy and didn’t mind spending his evenings developing this new capability. Hershey came to the realization that the NORC’s optical printer could take on a new role and be used as a typesetter. Plots and figures would generally be hand-drawn or by pen plotter. But special-purpose typewriters like the Varityper were needed to typeset math equations.

The text itself would be prepared using an ordinary typewriter. Inspirationīack in those days, before roff, LaTex, and WYSIWYG word processors, preparing technical reports full of complicated mathematical equations and data plots was quite time consuming. But soon the system would be utilized in ways not imagined by the original designers. No raster scanning or vector drawing was involved, so the process was fast. The electron beam projects an entire letter on the phosphor face of the tube in one “flash”, which in turn exposes photographic film.

This special CRT has an internal metal screen into which a font is etched. What made this device so fast? It was the Charactron Tube which we covered back in 2017. Charactron Tube Diagram (US Patent 2735956) While this printing speed was certainly impressive, the ability to plot entire graphs and figures in just fractions of a second was no doubt well appreciated by the scientists at Dahlgren.

But despite this wait time, the printing speed was much faster than line printers of the day: 7000 lines per minute vs 150. Since they used film, they required chemical processing to become photos, slides, or microfilm. Perhaps you’ve heard stories of programmers waiting impatiently for printouts from mainframe operators? Well you would have waited even longer for your optical plots. SC4020 Computer Recorder Information Manual

Gothic fonts for inkscape