Date: Tue, 24 Nov 1998 11:08:05 -0500 From: Bob Mast The Flexowriter was first manufactured by IBM , during WWII, to be used as an automatic letter writer. After the war several IBMers bought the rights and formed Commercial Controls, Inc. They manufactured same in the old IBM ?Electric typewriter building in Rochester NY. In the late fifties, Friden bought Commercial Controls. The unit was basically an Electric typewriter with a paper punch and reader attached to the left side. As you typed, with the punch on, it punched holes in a 5 channel tape. The tape could then be inserted into the tape reader and automatically type the information that had been punched. Friden later developed 6,7 & 8 channel tape punches and readers. They also used the Flexowriter to develop their Computypers, which consisted of a Flexowriter connected to one or more Friden calculators, in a desk. These units had the ability to multiply, accumulate, apply discounts, added taxes, etc as the Flexowriter typed a document. Eight Channel card punches were developed to allow reading of individual documents. As an example, it was possible to have a punched card for each customer and each item in stock. With programming, a customer card could be inserted into the card reader, press the start read bottom, and the heading of the invoice would be taped automatically. Insert an item card, manually type in the quantity, press the start read and the description was automatically typed. Friden also attached an IBM card reader so IBM cards could be read. They also could connect the Flexowriter, by cable to an 026 IBM Card Punch to produce IBM cards for statistical data processing, thereby eliminating the key pucnh operation. Flexowriters were also sold to other manufactures who incorporated them into their own products, which could explain the Burroughs label on one of your machines. Hope the brief information will be of some help to you.