from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
IBM 2741
golf ball printer
<printer> A slow, letter-quality printing device and
{terminal} based on the {IBM Selectric} {typewriter}. The
print head was a little sphere resembling a golf ball, bearing
reversed embossed images of 88 different characters arranged
on four parallels of latitude; one could change the font by
changing the golf ball. The device communicated at 134.5 bits
per second, {half duplex}. When the computer transmitted, it
physically locked the keyboard.
This was the technology that enabled {APL} to use a
non-{EBCDIC}, non-{ASCII}, and in fact completely non-standard
{character set}. This put it 10 years ahead of its time -
where it stayed, firmly rooted, for the next 20, until
{character displays} gave way to programmable {bit-mapped}
devices with the flexibility to support other character sets.
(2006-08-04)