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You'd think that hammering the paper against the spinning drum would result in a blurry mess at best, but the hammers are fast enough that it works. It's the same principle as a chain printer such as the vintage IBM 1403, where the chain is zipping along at 90.3 inches per second when it gets hammered.

Less than 100 thou, I think. It's also a very rapid process, so the drum would have barely moved meanwhile.

I think the paper gets sandwiched between the hammer on one side and the drum on the other side.

This would be not too dissimilar to how a typewriter would have worked, I think?