Endless tape cartridge

An endless tape cartridge is a tape cartridge or cassette containing magnetic audio tape to play its stored contents in an endless loop, without need to rewind to repeat.

Description

The tape transport allows forward move only. The tape might have start and end markers as magnetic beacon or electric conductive splice or an optically scanned hole in the tape as even a transparent splice tape. The technique was originally an invention from sound engineer Bernard A. Cousino which dominated the North American tape market for some years.[1]

In 1952, one of the first known products was the Audio Vendor, invention by Cousino, based on an endless tape loop.[2] It was registered as patent US2804401A. The tape is pulled out from inner side of a loose tape reel which drives the reel to wind the returned tape to the outside of the roll again. Initially, this mechanism to be installed on a reel-to-reel audio tape recorder.[3][4] Later Cousino developed a plastic case to be hung up on some existing tape recorders.[5] This cartridge was marketed by John Herbert Orr as Orrtronic Tapette.[6] In this generation, the magnetic coating of the tape was wound on the inside of the reel. Later cartridge types had the magnetic layer aligned to the outside of the cartridge, which requires a special designed recorder to play it. One traction of the tape by capstan was needed, only and it offers the convenience to just to push the cartridge into the recorder without threading the tape. These cassettes needed no internal space for the tape head slider, as it accesses the tape from outside the cartridge.[7] Based on this invention, in 1954 George Eash developed the Fidelipac cartridge.[8] PlayTape and the 8-track tape are were made on this technique. Endless compact cassettes for the announcement text of answering machines used the same procedure. The take-up roll got a table and the perforation for traction was removed. Also no rear winding roll inside such a cassette. With this technique, rewinding is impossible. Previously, a similar technique was used to store Tefifon's vinyl sonic tape in the Tefi cartridge.

Another invention patented by Cousino was the graphite coated tape, applied to the bottom side of tape in endless cartridges,[8][9][10] what enabled pulling the endless tape out without crinkling it. This technique was also used in 8-track cassettes, causing gray appearance of the bottom side tape.[11]

Technological predecessor of the endless cartridge

  • magnetic audio tape (1928)
  • Tefifon (1936) The vinyl sonic tape was similarly stored in the tefi cartridge, but without any reel
  • Audio Vendor, an assembly to install on a reel-to-reel tape recorder device by Bernard Cousino
  • Stereo tape (1953) (first stereo audio storage for end users)

List of endless tape cartridges

The different data and sound cartridges in chronological market launch:

References

  1. ↑ Nielsen Business Media Inc, ed. (1956-02-25), "Cousino Cartridge Leads Tape Race" (in German), Billboard (Nielsen Business Media, Inc.): p. 24, https://books.google.de/books?id=pR4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA24. Retrieved 2018-05-08
  2. ↑ David Morton (2006) (in German), [books.google.de Sound recording. The life story of a technology], Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press, p. 157, ISBN 0-8018-8398-9, books.google.de
  3. ↑ (in German) Magnetic sound tape, 1955-04-11, https://patents.google.com/patent/US2804401A/en. Retrieved 2018-05-02
  4. ↑ (in German) Audio, Radio Magazine, Incorporated, 1963, p. 83, https://books.google.de/books?id=josqAQAAMAAJ&PA83. Retrieved 2018-05-08
  5. ↑ (in German) High Fidelity, Audiocom, 1973, p. 357, https://books.google.de/books?id=3WRLAAAAYAAJ&PA357. Retrieved 2018-05-08
  6. ↑ (in German) Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, Audio Engineering Society., 1967, https://books.google.de/books?id=JixWAAAAMAAJ&PA6. Retrieved 2018-05-08
  7. ↑ (in German) Tape cartridge, 1957-01-22, https://patents.google.com/patent/US2922642A/en. Retrieved 2018-05-02
  8. 1 2 Barry Kernfeld (2011) (in German), [books.google.de Pop song piracy. Disobedient music distribution since 1929], Chicago / London: University of Chicago Press, p. 151, ISBN 978-0-226-43184-0, books.google.de
  9. ↑ "." (in German), Billboard (Billboard Publications) 83: p. 134, January 1971, https://books.google.de/books?id=UfMiAQAAMAAJ&PA=134. Retrieved 2018-05-08
  10. ↑ (in German) Magnetic sound recording tapes, 1963-04-02, https://patents.google.com/patent/CA660361A/en. Retrieved 2018-05-02
  11. ↑ Nielsen Business Media Inc, ed. (1963-04-20), "Frictionless Tape Ready" (in German), Billboard (Nielsen Business Media, Inc.) (28): p. 50, https://books.google.de/books?id=YQsEAAAAMBAJ. Retrieved 2018-05-02
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.