When Britain had a home grown computer industry.

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zeitghost replied

5 March 2015, 08:16
Originally posted by Keith Huntley View Post

I am the Keith Huntley referred to and yes the Xeronic was a Xerographic printer using a drum copier called the Copyflo. I was in charge of Ranks research labs in Shepherds Bush where the Xeronic was developed. It's a long time ago but if you have any questions I will be pleased to answer them.

Welcome.

Originally posted by mudskipper View Post

I started my working life on an ICL mainframe.

Here you go zeity - you can run George 3 on a raspberry pi!

Running GEORGE 3 on a Raspberry Pi » DesignSpark

Siliconix used to run jobs* on the Swansea Uni ICL back in the day.

Until I wrote stuff that did it on a GA16-220 mini.

*datalogging type stuff IIRC.

Last edited by zeitghost; 8 June 2017, 07:49.
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suityou01 replied

5 March 2015, 07:47
Originally posted by Keith Huntley View Post

I am the Keith Huntley referred to and yes the Xeronic was a Xerographic printer using a drum copier called the Copyflo. I was in charge of Ranks research labs in Shepherds Bush where the Xeronic was developed. It's a long time ago but if you have any questions I will be pleased to answer them.

Welcome Keith!
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mudskipper replied

5 March 2015, 06:44
Originally posted by zeitghost

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe,

Ferranti Computers off the shoulder of Orion.

Ferranti Orion

I started my working life on an ICL mainframe.

Here you go zeity - you can run George 3 on a raspberry pi!

Running GEORGE 3 on a Raspberry Pi » DesignSpark
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Keith Huntley replied

5 March 2015, 03:13
Originally posted by zeitghost View Post

http://archive.computerhistory.org/r....102641284.pdf

Love the illustrations.

And the "Xeronic printer" which I assume to be some sort of Xerographic device.

I am the Keith Huntley referred to and yes the Xeronic was a Xerographic printer using a drum copier called the Copyflo. I was in charge of Ranks research labs in Shepherds Bush where the Xeronic was developed. It's a long time ago but if you have any questions I will be pleased to answer them.
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TimberWolf replied

2 March 2011, 10:11
What is the approximate period there, mid 60s? And that jumble of wires hanging like a web in a open box, is that magnetic core storage?
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zeitghost started a topic When Britain had a home grown computer industry.

2 March 2011, 09:40
When Britain had a home grown computer industry.

http://archive.computerhistory.org/r....102641284.pdf

Love the illustrations.

And the "Xeronic printer" which I assume to be some sort of Xerographic device.

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe,

Ferranti Computers off the shoulder of Orion.

Ferranti Orion

Originally posted by Wiki

While not, strictly speaking , a laser printer, an experimental xerographic printing device was demonstrated by Keith Huntley of the Central Research Laboratories of Rank Precision Industries Ltd, UK (part of Rank-Xerox Ltd) in March 1958. A prototype Xeronic printer was exhibited at the Electronic Computer Exhibition in London in November-December 1958. It seems that by at least 1962, the device was fully developed. By 1964, a printer was in use on the Leo computer. It printed at 2,888 lines per minute. The printer used a combination of a CRT to generated characters and a lamp and photographic film to generate forms information.

(Information from LEO:the first Business computer by Peter Bird ISBN 0-9521651-0-4).

I suspect that Gary Starkweather's invention was simply a matter of parallel independent invention.

Just as an LED printer is widely regarded as the same technology as a laser printer, the Xeronic printer can also be regarded as the same technology.

It would be better to merge this article with the LED printer article into a single Xerographic printer article. (Note that it would not be appropriate to merge this into Page Printer, because dot matrix and impact printers can also be page printers. Note that the Xeronic printer printed onto continuous stationary.).

It would probably be better to have laser printer (and LED printer) redirect to Xerographic printer, since I agree that laser printer it the common name, even though LED printer is not strictly speaking a laser printer. If the Laser printer page is retained, then the introduction should make it clear that (most of) the page is talking about Xerographic printers, and there are different types, namely laser, LED and CRT/film light.

It must have been difficult to develop laser printers in 1958, since they hadn't invented lasers at the time.

Bummer.

They hadn't invented leds either.

Bummer squared.

Or ICs.

Bummer cubed.

Shoulders of giants etc.

It's late 50s early 60s.

Page 8 of the English Electric thingie shows a core store.

Last edited by zeitghost; 8 June 2017, 07:48.
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