30 Nov
2025
30 Nov
'25
1:01 p.m.
On Nov 29, 2025, at 5:02 PM, Peter Brown via cctalk
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> wrote:
I have recently acquired a Flexowriter. It looks very much like the one shown on this
page - https://moca.ncl.ac.uk/iomedia/pt4.htm
The identifying points are
- blue color keys
- tape punch and reader (both appear to be 8 bits)
- white and red lamps on the front panel beneath the Friden logo
The serial number plate shows F_V as the model and S P E C as the coding.
Is anyone familiar with what this model is? What does the coding refer to?
Peter
"Blue keys" made me think of the later model 2301, like this one:
https://www.noviomagus.nl/Gemeentearchief/Cat12/friden%20teletype%202301%20…
Flexowriters could be customized in many ways. The only ones I used were at TU Eindhoven,
where they were used to punch ALGOL programs for the EL-X8 based system (the THE system).
Some of the custom features found on those machines:
1. ALGOL 60 characters such as AND and OR signs, logical not sign, and subscript 10 (for
floating point numbers).
2. Non-advancing _ and | characters for underlined words (ALGOL keywords) and overstrikes
such as |= for not-equal.
3. "Stop on semicolon" switch so you could edit an ALGOL program easily: copy
tape to punch and when it reaches the statement before the point you want to change, turn
on stop on semicolon. It would stop the tape copy process at the end of that statement.
Most of the machines I used were like the one you showed, but at some point a few of the
2301 models showed up. Other than a more modern look they seemed to be equivalent.
paul
