Tabor Corporation

Unfortunately, Tabor Corporation has very little about its company history or employee figures published anywhere. I really wanted to include them in this historical writeup, but finding information will be extra hard now. The two founders of Tabor, Michael Hanley and Gerrit Nijssen, have both passed away. Attached here are photos and information relating to the company and its products as I find them.

History

Tabor Corporation was originally founded in 1982 by Michael Hanley and Gerrit Nijssen. Tabor was originally a part of the standards committee led by Shugart Associates and Verbatim Corporation, but dropped out due to the fact they already had interested buyers in their 3.25" drivette and the committee wanted them to hold off on sales until a new standard could be agreed upon. Following the split, Seagate Technology decided to reject the idea of the 3.5" disk becoming the new standard after a falling out with Sony, and partnered with Tabor on the 3.25" diskette being the new standard.

Olivetti Research was Tabor's first customer for the 3.25" drivette, possibly using the diskettes in their line of electronic typerwriters. In January of 1983, Tabor began working on a 30,000 square foot production facility to begin manufacturing and shipping by April of that year. Michael Hanley reported during COMDEX in February that "Tabor has orders for evaluation drives to 50-60 customers". Tabor was also requested by Verbatim, Xidex, Spin Physics, Graham Magnetics, Memorex, and Nashua to provide specifications and media drawings of their diskette. The early prototype, which was called "less than impressive" by Digital Design's February 1983 issue, was heavily improved upon with a soft jacket and a new metal hub for "200 microinch position accuracy". These new disks were manufactured by Brown Disc, Dysan, 3M, and BASF, and were shown on the COMDEX floor.

In April of 1984, Tabor hired Bob Moody from the Byte Shop retail store to start a software division. This division was to license major products and load them onto 3.25" media to entice buyers to get the diskettes. Australian Micro Computerworld'sApril 1984 issue called the move the "...most bizarre marketing concept...".

TO DO: Figure out where Seequa became involved? When did the drives fail?

Downloads

Icon	Title	Description	Download
	Tabor Corporation Articles of Incorporation	Tabor Corporation's articles of incorpoation from the state of Massachusetts. Dated 20 January, 1982.	Download
	United States Patent Number 4,613,921: DISK MEMORY APPARATUS	Tabor Corporation's 3.25" diskette and drivette patent. Filed 23 September, 1986	Download