this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2024
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You're just below the curve of home computers becoming ubiquitous. I'm 43, and through most of middle school papers had to be handwritten in cursive.
At home my computer was from Radio Shack, hooked to a TV, and had a Daisy Wheel printer - fonts were hardware. I got my first IBM PC in 8th grade, with a 20mb hard drive & dual 5 1/4" floppies.
What, like a printing press?
More like a typewriter, but instead of individual arms for each key, it was a wheel with all the letters that would spin to the correct position before a little piston would whack it. Also, yes, it was loud as fuck.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File%3AXerox_Roman_PS_Daisywheel_-_mono.jpg
Oh I've seen these... I thought they were for a typewriter, since they were among the things with the typewriter my mom had when I was a kid. Neat!
I have seen electric typewriters that used the same tech, so it may have been a typewriter wheel you saw.
Yep. 46 here. Rough drafts in print, final drafts in cursive in elementary school.