May, 1gjZ.l CURRENT TOPICS Charactron Hi-Speed Printer.-A unique development combining electronics and dry photographic techniques for the first time to provide high-speed, automatic recording of intelligence at rates as high as 10,000 characters per second was described recently by J. T. McNaney, inventor of the Charactron, a special-purpose cathode-ray tube.
McNaney, a senior electronics engineer for Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation (Convair), San Diego, Calif., told members of the Institute of Radio Engineers that the Charactron tube "would be of immense value in many applications requiring high-speed visual presentation' of information on a direct-viewing screen or reproduced for a permanent record on ordinary newsprint or other low-cost media."
"This reproducing equipment, referred to as a Charactron Hi-Speed Printer, utilizes the Charactron tube to produce a printing speed of approximately 20 inches of paper per second and will satisfy the need for voluminous recording at high speeds," McNaney said.
"We believe that the Xerography process, developed by the Haloid Company of Rochester, N. Y., will be ideally suited for use in connection with the Charactron tube as a means of recording the output.
Convair has had discussions with the Haloid Company with a view to a cooperative development of this equipment.
"This printing would be done directly and continuously on newsprint, multilith, or any other desired recording medium without film or costly and cumbersome chemical processing."
Among the more general applications of the Charactron tube are the data conversion and tabulation of analog or digital information, high-speed communications, for monitoring and message display equipment, and for computer read-out.
Current development work includes application of the Charactron to the computer field and to special military projects.