Light reading for old-timers

[ChrisGreaves]

I recommend https://archive.org/stream/anotherICL_a ... y_djvu.txt

The text is a collection of tales from The Good Old Days in the conglomeration that became ICL before it became something else, but I know that the tales are applicable to all early manufacturers, and when you find your story there, lean well back lest the tears drop onto your keyboard.
A sample:-

A Swedish clanger c 1966 Giles Scott-Giles
The 1933 line printer was a noisy beast, in spite of all the sound-damping material on the inside of the covers and packed tightly inside the hollow steel print barrel.
I had flown into Stockholm en route to a support call further north, possibly at Gavle Stad. Pausing briefly in transit at the ICT (or L.M. Ericsson) office I could hear a 1933 hard at it somewhere in the building, its print barrel ringing under the assault of the print hammers like all the anvils of Nibelheim.
I made some comment to Stellan Jonson, one of the Swedish engineering supervisors, who told me earnestly that when installing the printer they had experienced much difficulty in extracting the "packaging material" from the print barrel.

Sweet Dreams
Chris