The sparking printer made a metallic smell but no smoke. (Isn't there
a better name for it?) It used rolls of 100 mm. wide aluminized paper
and was as slow as molasses. I modified a basic WP programme to print
more than one page and it worked, but it took 2 minutes to scroll to
the next page. My next printer, used with the RS Color Computer, was a
Smith-Corona daisy wheel job, sold slightly modified from their
electric typewriter. It's output was really clear and sharp, if you
could stand the sound of little hammers 12 times a second! After 3
months it quit and was fixed under warranty. Another few months and it
quit for good, literally with a puff of smoke. It cost $1,100 in 1984.

It was replaced by a $360 Star dot matrix printer, which worked fairly
well if you could stand the whine and produced print that was legible
but not beautiful. Since the printer port on the Color Computer was
serial it needed a serial to parallel converter - another $130. When I
moved to IBM compatibles and Windows 3.1 it would no longer work as
they never produced drivers for it.

I can't remember when the 60 cycle conversion took place in Toronto.
My best guess is early or mid '50's. Toronto Hydro absorbed all the
costs. They sent a crew in to move refrigerators out to the front lawn
and pulled out the sealed compressor unity etc. replacing it with the
new 60 cycle one. Electric clocks and small appliances had to be taken
into a local depot and traded for a brand new 60 cycle one. Everyone
was quite happy with the result as all frequency sensitive appliances
were made brand new again. Of course there were no personal computers
to worry about then...

I'm not longing for the old days. I prefer my colour TV and MP3 music
and on a good day I enjoy my computers and Android phone!