19 Feb
1999
19 Feb
'99
11:24 a.m.
On Sat, 20 Feb 1999, Tony Duell wrote:
I just checked. The oxide is on the outside also.
- don
-tony
Geez! You
guys are dead right and I am dead wrong. It seems like a
strange way to do it though.
It makes the mechanical design much simpler. The outside of the tape (on
the front edge of the cartridge) has to be the oxide side, or the head
would have to fit behind the tape somehow. And having the tape that way
round means that the simplest layout of the cartridge will have it
spooled oxide-side out.
I can't think of an obvious cassette or cartridge that has the oxide on
the inside of the spools. Compact cassette, mini/micro cassettes, N1500,
V2000, VHS, Betamax video, 8mm video, etc all have the oxide on the
outside, I think.
Hang on. What about TK50s? They only have one spool in the cartridge, so
there's no mechanical reason to have the oxide one side or the other -
once you've grabbed the leader and threded it through the drive, you
could have the heads positioned on either side. I don't have a TK50 here
to check, but I think that one does wind with the oxide on the inside,
actually.