IBM 1443 (Flying Type Bar Line Printer, 1962)

What the IBM 1443 was

The IBM 1443 was an impact line printer that IBM introduced in 1962 as an output device for the IBM 1440 Data Processing System, a lower-cost member of the IBM 1400 family. IBM's Data Processing Division product chronology records that the 1440 and its peripherals were announced on October 11, 1962. The same printer was subsequently offered for other IBM computers, including the IBM 1620, 1710, and 1800 systems and, later, System/360; a dedicated IBM Systems Reference Library manual, "IBM 1443 Printer for IBM 1620/1710 Systems," documents that cross-system use. IBM's chronology records the 1443 as withdrawn from marketing on February 8, 1971.

How the flying type bar worked

The machine is often called the "1443 Flying Type Bar Printer," the name recorded in the Computer History Museum's collection. Instead of the continuous print chain or print train used by the faster IBM 1403, the 1443 carried its characters on a horizontally scanning type bar. Behind the paper sat a row of print hammers — one for each print position — each with its own magnet. As the type bar swept the required character past a given column, that column's hammer fired to press the paper and ribbon against the moving type, so a full line was assembled during the bar's scan. IBM's Systems Reference Library documentation states that the machine used 120 or 144 hammers, matching its 120- or 144-position line width.

Models and print speeds

IBM offered the 1443 in three models — the Model 1, Model 2, and Model N1 — whose speed depended on the model and on the character set carried by the type bar in use. IBM's reference documentation rates the Model 1 at about 150 lines per minute with a full alphanumeric (52-character) set, rising to as much as 430 lines per minute with a restricted 13-character set. The Model 2 and Model N1 are rated at about 240 lines per minute with the full set and up to roughly 600 lines per minute with the 13-character set. These figures are considerably slower than the contemporaneous IBM 1403, reflecting the 1443's role as the printer for IBM's smaller, lower-cost systems.

Interchangeable type bars and character sets

A defining feature of the 1443 was that its type bars were interchangeable. IBM's Systems Reference Library documentation describes type bars available with 13, 39, 52, or 63 characters, letting an operator match the character repertoire to the job. Because a smaller set meant the required character came around more often, the smaller type bars printed faster — which is why the 13-character bars reached the highest rated speeds while the 63-character bars ran slowest.

Paper handling and formatting

The 1443 printed on continuous fan-fold forms, visible in the Computer History Museum's photographs of the machine. IBM's Systems Reference Library documentation specifies horizontal spacing of 10 characters per inch and a choice of six or eight lines per inch vertically, with single, double, or triple line spacing. Form movement and page length were governed by a carriage-control tape, the standard mechanism of the era for aligning printed output with pre-printed forms.

Place in printing history

Within IBM's 1400 series the 1443 served as the more economical companion to the high-speed 1403: the 1403 used a fast chain or train mechanism for maximum throughput, while the type-bar 1443 traded speed for lower cost and the flexibility of quickly swapped character sets. Its flying-type-bar approach places it among the impact line printers that dominated commercial and scientific computer output before non-impact laser printing arrived in the 1970s. The 1443 is documented in the Computer History Museum's collection through a photograph and IBM reference manuals.

Reference scope

This page records only specifications that can be traced to authoritative sources: the Computer History Museum's catalog records and IBM's own Systems Reference Library documentation for the 1440 and 1443. Physical details such as the flying-type-bar mechanism, interchangeable type bars, and fan-fold paper handling are confirmed by the museum's records; the per-model speed, character-set, line-width, and spacing figures are drawn from IBM's reference documentation. Because the surviving IBM manuals are scanned images, the numeric figures were checked against multiple independent transcriptions that cite those same IBM documents. Any figure that could not be traced to such a source is omitted rather than estimated. This is a historical reference, not a buying guide, and it quotes no pricing or availability.