In message , at 09:56:04 on Fri, 25 Jun
2010, Huge remarked:
In mid 70's I worked on ICL drives, including something they called a
"drum", which was a single-platter mounted vertically.

You sure it was a "platter"? Only, when I worked for ITT in around 1975/6
(on what became the Unimat 4080 telephone switch), the message switches
that we shared our computer room with definitely had drums that were
drum shaped.

Absolutely sure. It was in ICL's in-house computer room in Bracknell,
and I was one of those engineers allowed to wander around and look at
anything I wanted to. In the hope that one day, when it broke, I could
try to fix it. I say "day", more like "half an hour".
--
Roland Perry