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Thanks for you memories and observations on old printers!

I don't miss the piercing sounds they made.

From memory, I think we put ours (an FX80 rather than the MX80) in a box to keep the sound down. It was used with an [HP86](https://archive.org/details/PersonalComputerWorld1982-10/pag...) controlling some lab equipment. Setting that up was my first paid job.

They sold boxes specifically for that.

I think they were mandatory for Doctors medical practices after some point in Germany.

There the Epsons were called the "Ärztedrucker" because Doctors they used them for "carbon copy" prescriptions. Even after Laser- or Inkjetprinters were common. No carbon copy possible there. And they had to be carbon copied, for legal reasons.

Offices which had typewriters or daisy-wheel printers beforehand were actually somewhat relieved by the "soothing" high-pitched sounds when they got dot-matrix.

The background sound resembling constant dental drilling was actually fairly painless compared to the volley of machine-gun fire that multiple high-impact printers could be sending across the room from different parts of the office.

Could be why they invented Tylenol ;)

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