Endless cassette

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Microdrive cassette, housing opened; in front of a compact cassette for comparison.

An endless cassette is a cassette with which the content stored on it can be played in an endless loop without having to or can be rewound in between; the magnetic tape can only be moved forward. There can be a start / end marking (for example switching or transparent tape at the splice point, a marking on an additional magnetic track or an optically scanned hole in the tape). The principle was originally developed by the sound engineer and inventor Bernard A. Cousino and for some time dominated the North American tape market .

One of the most famous products was the Audio Vendor, invented by Cousino in 1952 , which was based on an endless tape loop. It was patented under number US2804401A. The inside of the tape is pulled out of a loose tape roll and this is driven to wind the returned tape back on the outside. Initially, this mechanism was attached to a reel tape recorder . Cousino later developed a plastic housing that only had to be placed on some tape recorders. This cassette was marketed by John Herbert Orr as Orrtronic Tapette . The magnetizable coating was first wound onto the inside of the roll. In later cassette types, the magnetic layer is on the outside, which requires a suitable cassette player, which on the other hand only requires traction of the tape over the capstan and offers the convenience of simply pushing the cassette into the device without threading the tape. These cassettes do not require any internal space for the sound head carrier, as this is attached from the outside. On this basis, George Eash developed the Fidelipac in 1954 . PlayTape and the 8-track cassette (8-track) are based on this technology. Endless compact cassettes for the announcement text of answering machines used the same method. The take-up roll got a table and no teeth for traction . The back wrap was omitted. With this technique, the tape cannot reverse. A similar principle with sound tape was previously used in the Tefifon (1936).

Another patented invention by Cousino was the tape used in endless cassettes with a graphite-coated reverse side , which made it possible to pull the tape out of the endless roll without wrinkling . This technique has also been used in 8-track cassettes, which makes the back of the tape appear gray.

List of endless cassettes

The various data and sound carriers with the date of their market launch:

Individual evidence

  1. Cousino Cartridge Leads Tape Race . In: Nielsen Business Media Inc (Ed.): Billboard . Nielsen Business Media, Inc., February 25, 1956, p. 24 ( google.de [accessed on May 8, 2018]).
  2. ^ David Morton: Sound recording. The life story of a technology . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Md 2006, ISBN 0-8018-8398-9 , pp. 157 ( books.google.de ).
  3. Magnetic sound tape . April 11, 1955 ( google.com [accessed May 2, 2018]).
  4. Audio . Radio Magazine, Incorporated, 1963, pp. 83 ( google.de [accessed on May 8, 2018]).
  5. ^ High Fidelity . Audiocom, 1973, p. 357 ( google.de [accessed on May 8, 2018]).
  6. ^ Journal of the Audio Engineering Society . Audio Engineering Society., 1967 ( google.de [accessed May 8, 2018]).
  7. Tape cartridge . January 22, 1957 ( google.com [accessed May 2, 2018]).
  8. a b Barry Kernfeld: Pop song piracy. Disobedient music distribution since 1929 . University of Chicago Press, Chicago / London 2011, ISBN 978-0-226-43184-0 , pp. 151 ( books.google.de ).
  9. . In: Billboard . tape 83 . Billboard Publications, Jan 1971, pp. 134 ( google.de [accessed on May 8, 2018]).
  10. Magnetic sound recording tapes . April 2, 1963 ( google.com [accessed May 2, 2018]).
  11. Frictionless Tape Ready . In: Nielsen Business Media Inc (Ed.): Billboard . No. 28 . Nielsen Business Media, Inc., April 20, 1963, p. 50 ( google.de [accessed on May 2, 2018]).
  12. Gerd Weichhaus: Endless cassette> Cassette with 30-second endless tape bandmaschinen.jimdofree.com, accessed June 21, 2020.
  13. Mr Dengon - and his endless loop on techmoan.com