24 Sep
2005
24 Sep
'05
8:51 p.m.
On Sat, 24 Sep 2005, Scott Stevens wrote:
... that would be (or describes) the Gray 'Audograph', made by Northern
Electric (at least in Canada, perhaps by Western Electric in the US).
Circa mid-1940s. The disc is 6.5 in. diameter, holding one reminds one very
much of a bare floppy removed from it's envelope: similar weight (floppiness),
except it's a translucent deep-blue.
(Yes, I do have one (the recorder/player and several blank discs)).
Fred Cisin wrote:
The oddest 'floppy' drive that I ever saw
was a dictaphone machine that
recorded by cutting helical audio tracks like a phonograph record on a
thin 'floppy' plastic disk. Ooops, it wasn't digital (unless you held
it in your fingers).
<nitpick>
grooves "like a phonograph record" would be "SPIRAL", NOT
"helical".
"Helical" would be like a spiral stair case, or threads on a bolt.
Some of the early (Edison?) sound recorders DID cut helical threads on the
outside of a cylinder.
</nitpick>
Well, the tracking is performed by a helical-thread drive mechanism :)
Actually it's a little unusual in that (in contrast to record players and disc
drives) the head/needle is stationary and the disc is moved 'radially' (as well
as rotating of course).