brent@itm.UUCP (Brent) (04/06/84)
I don't like to lose my place.
Ah, yes, Magnefax
There is a little old man and his wife: Mr. and Mrs. Wendyl
Tollicson, who drive around the country in their Winnebago, demo'ing
the Magnefax duplicator. They have one of these machines and a
King 680 semi-automatic winder in the camper. They spend winters
in Florida, and generally tour around wherever they want to. Mr.
Tollicson is a very humble, godly, very nice man. After you talk
with him for a couple of hours, you slowly put together that he started
Magnefax, and his son now stays at home and runs the operation.
Now, if you've been thinking about the common capstan system of
duplication very long, you've realized one of its true beauties: no
wow or flutter. If there is a variation in the speed of the master,
the slaves will vary by the same amount, since they are on the same
capstan. Thus no common mode wow or flutter. Elegant.
The Tollicsons used to have a man working for them named Garner.
He quit one day, taking sets of blueprints for the complete product
line with him. He then started a company, making carbon copies of
Magnefax gear. Though he had the prints, he disn't have the mind that
created the prints. Thus Garner equiqment doen't work nearly as well
as the original, and Garner was having financial troubles, last I
heard. Take heed, industrial spies, you can steal information,
but not knowledge.
--
Brent Laminack (akgua!itm!brent)