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 This is awesome the Germans were really up there in the 50s
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 Return to top of page · Post #: 1 · Written at 3:04:53 AM on 29 September 2016.
Tallar Carl's avatar
 Tallar Carl
 Location: Latham, ACT
 Member since 21 February 2015
 Member #: 1705
 Postcount: 2174

https://youtu.be/nBNTAmLRmUg
 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 2 · Written at 3:08:16 AM on 29 September 2016.
Tallar Carl's avatar
 Tallar Carl
 Location: Latham, ACT
 Member since 21 February 2015
 Member #: 1705
 Postcount: 2174

This is a unit called a Tefifon . For the uninitiated it is not what it first seems to be so copy and paste and have a good look and listen.
 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 3 · Written at 5:23:18 PM on 29 September 2016.
GTC's avatar
 GTC
 Location: Sydney, NSW
 Member since 28 January 2011
 Member #: 823
 Postcount: 6761

Odd technology, given that the Germans had been perfecting tape recording since the 1930s and had advanced a long way with the state of the art in 1948 being the Magnetophon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYXHws4zG90

Here's an earlier model from 1939:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLjD0B6QoaM

The Americans had never seen such a thing until they entered Germany in WW2.

QUOTE: "Major John T. Mullin brought the Magnetophone to America at the end of the war. He was an electrical engineer in the Signal Corps assigned to investigate radar interference in Britain. As he listened to hours of music broadcast from Germany each night, he wondered how full orchestras could be playing symphonies at all hours of the night. The quality was equal to live radio, and was better than shellac records. On a trip to Radio Frankfurt he discovered the secret: Magnetophones with ac biasing. He studied the circuitry of these machines, and sent 2 old machines with dc biasing home to San Francisco with 50 reels of BASF Type L tape. He modified the electronics of the old machines to add dc biasing and demonstrated them May 16, 1946, to the Institute of Radio Engineers in San Francisco."


 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 4 · Written at 5:23:38 PM on 29 September 2016.
JamieLee's Gravatar
 JamieLee
 Location: Clare, SA
 Member since 27 March 2016
 Member #: 1894
 Postcount: 510

Wow a vinyl record grooved tape! That's amazing, surprised it never took off!
 
 Return to top of page · Post #: 5 · Written at 3:59:20 PM on 1 October 2016.
Ian Robertson's Gravatar
 Ian Robertson
 Location: Belrose, NSW
 Member since 31 December 2015
 Member #: 1844
 Postcount: 2476

Another bit of strange technology that never caught on - an optical disc as a musical instrument, the Optigan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ts3L68Twps
 
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