Summary

Microline Model 83A impact computer printer, using dot-matrix principle, for use with fanfold paper. Used in the Science Museum of Victoria for museum catalogue work in the 1980s. Made by Oki Corporation in Japan about 1982.

Ruth Leveson, former head of Collection Management, Society & Technology Collections, recalls: 'I most certainly remember that printer. It was the bane of my working life! It was always breaking down and jamming.' On numerous occasions she asked her tech-savvy colleague Forbes Hawkins, now Collections Systems Senior Developer at Museums Victoria, to fix it. Forbes remembers it being in the caretaker's flat at the Museum of Victoria's Swanston Street site: 'I gave it a good workout. It was in the room directly opposite Martin's [office - Martin Hallett]. Shirley [Goldsworthy] always needed me to print reams and reams of reports on it. As there wasn't a terminal in MacArthur basement, any time I needed to work with info from the database (usually object locations), I'd have to trudge up the marble stairs, through the halls, over to the rickety ancient lift, up to the caretakers flat, log in, query the database, print stuff... then trudge all the way back to MacArthur or the tunnels to use the data. I got a lot of exercise. I don't remember fixing it for Ruth but that seems likely.'

Physical Description

A ribbon cable connects to computer system. On/off switch is at the rear. Pushbutton control of line feed, form feed (= one page), as well as a rotary control for form length (because of varying paper lengths).

More Information