Shame there aren’t any good videos of paper tape being read at 1000cps, i.e. >2m/s. Tape flew horizontally for >1m into a large hopper, and you really didn’t want to get your fingers anywhere ...

Gummed paper tape, also known as water-activated tape (WAT), ... You may be familiar with this type of tape and not even know it — it is often used by large online retailers.

Paper tape wasn’t just for computers. They ran CNC machines, typesetters, and even taught Morse code . Posted in Retrocomputing Tagged Chernobyl , Chornobyl , tape reader ...