My first NC (not CNC) was a Moog Hydrapoint 1000. It used paper tape (or console) input but used air blown through the holes to read the tape !
No balls screws, or feed screws of any kind, positioning was done by hydraulic servos, there were binary coded sliding steel plates, the code being detailed by holes in the plates. The servo system homed in on the one hole that lined up through all the plates. Plate positions were set up with pneumatic activators through the paper tape, or air switches on the console.
My crowning achievement with it was to make a PC parallel port to 24 bit pneumatic interface using pneumatic pilot valves to mimic the paper tape (which was read in three stripes at a time hence 24 bits).
When I got it the free standing console umbilical cables had been separated from the machine by hack saw. They were 3" flexible conduit packed with 3 mm nylon pneumatic pipe. All the same colour and no documentation
Got there in the end.
Like the picture below, but mine had a tool changer carousel.
Did I say I like a challenge
