Ricoh Synchrofax

Ricoh Synchrofax is a Japanese dictating machine from 1959, reissued in 1974 as the 3M Sound Page (model 627AA and 627AG) as official teaching material in the US-state of Oklahoma.[1] It is also known as sound paper. Inventor Sakae Fujimoto filed the patents US3074724A and US3046357A in 1959.[2][3]

Technology

The device produced by Ricoh uses bottom side magnetic coated paper, positioned by three perforations on three pins on device. A tape head on a rotating disc is spirally moved from outside to inside while the recording material (paper) stays still. Up to four minutes can be recorded per sheet. Microphone, headphones and monitor jacks are 3.5mm plugs.[4]

The device is 12 lb 9 oz or 5.7 kg, has 11 transistors and dimensions of 10.6×5.5×14.8 inch, which equal 270×140×375 mm.[5]

In 1973, the 3M device for schools cost US$299,[1] which would be around $1700 today.

This technology dates back to 1959 but the idea of coating paper in magnetic materials like ferric oxide and recording on them wasn't new at the time. Some of the first open reel recorders used paper reels of tape with special coating.

gollark: Java 7 used to be able to, but mods need 8 now, but 9 somehow breaks the launcher because of course it does.
gollark: bcachefs looks interesting, but isn't actually in the kernel yet.
gollark: I overresearch current filesystem benchmarks *every time* I set up a Linux system and really need to stop doing it.
gollark: I mostly just use f2fs these days.
gollark: There are probably mods with fishes on older versions.

References
  1. For teachers – pictures that talk, Popular Science, Ausgabe Mai 1973, S. 94
  2. . Sakae Fujimoto, Nihon Denki Bunka Kogyo Kabush, Riken Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki K. "Patent US3074724 - Apparatus for positioning recording and recorded sheets on a magnetic recorder and reproducer". Google Books. 1960-09-14.CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. . Sakae Fujimoto, Nihon Denki Bunka Kogyo Kabush, Riken Kogaku Kogyo Kabushiki K. "Patent US3046357 - Magnetic recording and reproducing machine". Google Books. 1960-09-07.CS1 maint: others (link)
  4. Techmoan: RetroTech: Recordable Paper - The 3M Sound Page, YouTube, 12 April 2018
  5. Synchrofax R.P at the Radio Museum, retrieved 22 April 2018
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.