For those interested in old magnetic tape recording formats, the photos below show a 1960s tape cartridge recently sent to us for restoration and transfer. The cartridge would have originally been used in the Philips/Norelco dictation machine shown in the third photo. This cartridge concept would have been attractive for office staff because it eliminated the need to lace the tape. At the end of side one the cartridge could easily be flipped over to record or replay the second track. This innovation was the forerunner to the Philips Compact Cassette introduced in the mid 1960s with dictation and speech recording in mind, however by the 1970s the humble Compact Cassette had been widely adopted for music recording which attracted further development; low noise tape, better frequency response, Dolby B and some very advanced decks to record and play the cassettes on.
We found this elderly cartridge played at 1 7/8ips and was recorded on both sides. Towards the end of the first side the recorded material speeded up quite considerably probably indicating a worn or slack belt on the take up spool of the original machine – we were able to correct this speed fluctuation and present our customers with a CD of their father speaking onto the tape in 1962.
Both the cartridge and original box were in good mechanical order as can be seen from the photos.
My thanks to David Morton who allowed me to use his photo of the Philips/Norelco machine (www.recording-history.org).
Philips/Norelco Dictation Cartridge
Philips/Norelco Dictation Cartridge Box
Philips-EL3581-00
Tags: Audio Restoration, Damaged Materials, Tapes