On 2015-Jun-16, at 12:31 PM, Paul Koning wrote: >> On Jun 16, 2015, at 3:20 PM, tony duell <a...@p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote: >> ... >>> The actual tape movement as such, is all done by the small wheel next to >>> the head, which just runs the tape past the head. >> >> Which is essentailly the same as the capstan in an audio tape recorder, >> albeit the computer >> drive doesn't have a pinch roller > > Most don’t. Some do. I remember using IBM tape drives on a 360 Model 44 > that were amazingly badly designed.
Once ran across a Honeywell drive (7-track) that had a 'vacuum capstan'. The capstan wheel had a vacuum path through the axle and then transferred the vacuum out to holes around the perimeter. So rather than a pinch roller or rubber frictional surface on the capstan to grip the tape, it was a vacuum holding the tape to the smooth metal surface of the rotating capstan. Or was this common on higher-end vac-column drives?
