From: jgd@cix.co.uk   
      
   In article <10ml9ef$264n$1@gal.iecc.com>, johnl@taugh.com (John Levine)   
   wrote:   
      
   > I suspect that the read backward feature on tape drives was   
   > invented to speed up sorting, when someone realized that if   
   > you'd written a set of tapes, you could read them backward   
   > and merge into the next set of tapes in reverse order, repeat   
   > until done.   
      
   Emerson W Pugh's _IBM's 360 & Early 370 Systems_ says that was the reason.   
      
      
   John   
      
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