Tangible Media: Removable Storage of Image, Sound, Motion and Data
Tangible Media: Removable Storage of Image, Sound, Motion and Data
Tangible Media: Removable Storage of Image, Sound, Motion and Data
Magnetization
Soundscriber

Date:

1950s–1970s

Material:

Iron oxide on mylar base, plastic reels

Dimensions:

Tape 2 in. × 200 ft. (51 mm × 508 cm),  reel 3¾ (9.5 cm),  recorder 6¼ × 18 ⅛ × 11⅞ in. (16 × 48 × 30 cm)

Company:

The Soundscriber Corporation

Location:

North Haven, Connecticut, United States

A reel of 2 in. logging tape able to record 24 hours of audio. The recording is made diagonally across the width of the tape using two recording heads on a rotating wheel. The tape is fed through a guide that curls it into a circular arc matching the diameter of the wheel. As one recording head leaves the tape, the other enters to start a new track. The tape advances at 2½ inches per minute.

The transverse recording tracks made it virtually impossible to alter the recording undetected, making it ideal as a legal record of communication. Users included police and fire departments, courtrooms, and radio broadcasters (The Soundscriber Corp 1960, p. 7).

The figures on the back of the tape are timestamps in minutes.
An advertisement for an earlier version of the Soundscriber, in which recording heads are embedded in the face of a spinning disc instead of the curved surface of a turning cylinder. American Aviation, Sept. 14, 1953.
(The Soundscriber Corporation 1953, p. 61).
Automatic tracking device for transverse sound track tape recorders. US Patent 2,897,290.
Fig. 4 shows the diagonal tracks across the width of the tape (Lyon 1959).
References
⌃  Back to citationLyon, William H. 1959. Automatic tracking device for transverse sound track tape recorders. US Patent 2,897,290, filed Dec. 14, 1956, and issued Jul. 28, 1959.
⌃  Back to citationThe Soundscriber Corp. 1953. Now 24 Hour Tape Recording &elips; Non-Stop!. Advertisement in American Aviation, Sep. 1953.
⌃  Back to citationThe Soundscriber Corp. c. 1960. Soundscriber Monitor. The Soundscriber Corp.