Thermal strip chart recorder

A strip chart recorder for plotting and printing, comprising:

• a viewing platen having a viewing surface;
• an edge structure forming a peripheral edge of said viewing surface, said edge structure comprising first and second closely spaced parallel edges and a flat surface between and connecting said first and and second edges;
• means for controlling a strip of thermally sensitive chart paper to move at a constant speed around and in contact with said first edge, across said flat surface, around and in contact with said second edge, and then across said viewing surface;
• a galvanometric stylus for recording analog signals on said paper, said stylus having an elongate heated tip portion urged toward one of said first or second edges for contact with the paper in a line of contact along said one edge;
• and
• a thermal print head for printing a plurality of lines of characters on said paper, said print head having an elongate array of selectively heatable elements being positioned and urged toward said flat surface between said first and second edges so as to bring said array into contact with said paper along said flat surface, the longitudinal dimension of said array being parallel with said first and second edges.