unreadable HP cartridges

[Jay West]

Joe wrote.....
>   I still have a bottle of it but what good would it do to know the binary
> pattern? You couldn't program a new tape with it.

Uh, yes you could. The bits revealed on the tape could be read optically. 
Build something like an optical paper tape reader mechanism but with much 
better optics. Then take the data to a system with mag tape and write a new 
one.

Just a thought. Perhaps a stupid one, but a thought nontheless :>

Jay