The first tape recorder Tonschreiber 1939

[reel-to-reel-man]

Many may know I love to collect reel to reels, hence my user ID, I have always wanted to get early recorders with interesting history, this week I purchased something I thought I would never find, the Tonschreiber Ton S.b1. This recorder started life out in 1939, although the Magnetophon had been demonstrated in 1937, I do not believe they where for sale, this machine could possibly be from the first in the world to be sold. The recorder I brought could have been made between 1939 to 1944, I will not know until I pick it up on Saturday, all I do know is I am one lucky guy, thanks to my friend who spotted it. Below are some pictures of the recorder, when I have the machine I will take some more.
On another thread, someone mentions an unusual tape speed, this recorder does not have any standard tape speeds, they are as follows

CM - Imches
9 - 3.5
13 - 5.1
18 - 7.1
25 - 9.8
36 - 14.2
52 - 20.5
72 - 28.3
104 - 40.9
120 - 47.2

[coil1234]

Very nice find


Mike A

[Kat Manton]

Hi,

Oh, very nice

I'll look forward to more photos, that is an amazing find.

Regards, Kat

[ben]

...love to know what's on the tape!
hitler's secret audio diaries??!
let us know if you need a hand with any translations.
-B.

[reelguy]

Cool !.
Look forward to seeing more pics and hearing about the tape contents if any..
Peter W.............Reelguy

[reel-to-reel-man]

The story goes,
The seller had two of these machines which where going into a close bidder auction, my friend inquired about the recorders (Suppose to be two in one lot!), only to find a Dutch man had already offered a staggering amount just for one machine. I asked my friend to match that figure and see what they said; the seller withdrew them from the auction list (Not an Ebay auction) and allowed us to buy the other machine. The wanted to keep hold of the 10 reels of tapes which came with the recorder, I told my friend to offer a free transfer which is now part of the deal for 5-6 reels of tape (The others are for the Dutch man and the same rules would apply). The tapes run at very peculiar speeds and the recorder is suspected to be faulty (If not dangerous) but I have a Studer A810 which will play tapes from 1.7/8isp to 60ips! That’s completely variable between all the speeds, also the Studer has library wind (Soft spooling) which will be essential for these tapes as the are at least 63 years old and made from what was called type-A tape (Plastic not paper), these tapes where brittle even when new.

[KEITHW]

This looks fantastic! Presumably it was built for the military? It certainly gives that impression. I dread to think what it weighs

The label saying 'Achtung!' appears rather onerous, perhaps you don't mess with that bit

Keith

[Roger13]

What a fantastic find! Mind you, try getting that past the wife ....

I shall watch this space with much interest.

Good luck with the project.

Roger.

[reel-to-reel-man]

Originally Posted by KEITHW

This looks fantastic! Presumably it was built for the military? It certainly gives that impression. I dread to think what it weighs

The label saying 'Achtung!' appears rather onerous, perhaps you don't mess with that bit

Keith

The recorder is 61Kg, there is a third unit which holds the tapes and spare valves. The recorder was built at first for civilian broadcast and then was ordered to be used in the German army

[reel-to-reel-man]

Originally Posted by Roger13

What a fantastic find! Mind you, try getting that past the wife ....

I shall watch this space with much interest.

Good luck with the project.

Roger.

No wife yet I need to find a women who likes recorders and dogs, still waiting

[flywheel]

It looks so modern! Really, all the principles look so thoroughly worked out.

[brenellic2000]

Hi,

I understand these were portable versions of the static AEG Magnetophon. 'Tonschreiber' is simply a generic term for a tape recorder.

They were certainly much used by German radio stations broadcasting proganda and 'live' speeches (editing out any dissent seconds before being broadcast!) or for 'listening in' to suspected resistance workers and British agents!

The best book on these early decks is that by Joseph Begun when he was safely in the USA; it was also published in the UK by Thermionic Products.

Best wishes
Barry

[brenellic2000]

... back again! I forgot to say that were about 390 Magnetophons (of all types) made by 1939.

TTFN
Barry

[James B]

What a find!

Regarding the transfer of very old tapes, take a look at this article:

http://www.aes.org/journal/suppmat/hess_2001_7.pdf

..and very old machines, this one:

http://www.bext.com/Mullin-RPT.pdf

I found both ages ago and thought they might be of use!

[reel-to-reel-man]

Cheers for the info, this recorder has a very low SN of 484, I have had the machine open but have not seen anything to suggest its date. I know the first K-0 recorder was invented in 1930, that the Magnetophon was sold before this machine, I think it will be a little while longer before I can find anything older than this one though.
I have included some nice new pictures for you all.
http://www.vintagerecorders.co.uk/seb/radio/ton/12.jpg
Capstan drive
http://www.vintagerecorders.co.uk/seb/radio/ton/21.jpg
Capsatan has a tacho, there are pre set speeds and a fine tune varispeed
http://www.vintagerecorders.co.uk/seb/radio/ton/13.jpg
The main anm out of it's box
http://www.vintagerecorders.co.uk/seb/radio/ton/30.jpg
It looks like a tension roller (The one with the 4 screws in it) but behind the machine there is a motor drive, the roller itself has 4 rotary heads in it, I have no idea what this does.
http://www.vintagerecorders.co.uk/seb/radio/ton/14.jpg
All the valve's have their legs standing out at an angle rather than pointing down, these are the first of these types I have ever seen.

[reel-to-reel-man]

By the way, I have transferred one of the reels to a 10.5 inch reel, and have plyed one of the tapes on my A810, the first one was morse code, also the tape is ingreadibly abrasive! I have a telefunken M5 (Looks like a Magnetophon) which I am planning on placing the full track mono head block on and using this to do the job.

I got only 4 reels with the machine and that was on the condition that if there was anything interesting I would make the museum (Where it came from) a copy, else they would not allow them to go.

[ben]

fascinating stuff. The wiring in that top picture looks like a death trap though! And make damn sure you don't break any of those valves - not quite the sort of thing you can nip down to replace at the local maplin's!

You may want to check out 'the secret life of the vcr' - they had a working tonschreiber on that show. probably the other machine from that museum!

keep us up to date and all the very best with the project.

[reel-to-reel-man]

Originally Posted by ben

fascinating stuff. The wiring in that top picture looks like a death trap though! And make damn sure you don't break any of those valves - not quite the sort of thing you can nip down to replace at the local maplin's!

You may want to check out 'the secret life of the vcr' - they had a working tonschreiber on that show. probably the other machine from that museum!

keep us up to date and all the very best with the project.

Hello, I actually know Tin Hunkin, we have been speaking about this machine, I was hoping he may be able to help me get the song he originally used to play on that machine, unfortunately, the owner of the tape has died, the recorder used in the video clip was from the science museum.
See the clip
www.vintagerecorders.co.uk/seb/movie.wmv

I also have found a contact who owns some literature on this recorder (Not a service manual but something bigger, not sure what), I would love to get a diagram for this machine, it will be a job to get it working but I would love to hear it play.

Some more pics of the wiring

http://www.vintagerecorders.co.uk/seb/radio/ton/17.jpg

http://www.vintagerecorders.co.uk/seb/radio/ton/18.jpg

http://www.vintagerecorders.co.uk/seb/radio/ton/20.jpg

[reel-to-reel-man]

I have made a short clip of one of the tapes being played, I tried to use my Studer A810 but the tape is a fraction larger than 1/4" causing the Studer to stop, the EMI has adjustable tape guides and I was able to play it on this, the first tape was morse, the second seems to be an engineer testing the recording capabilities, it sounds like on this segment he is talking about the transition on a car, played back at 15ips, would have thought it was recorded at 25 cm/sec

http://www.vintagerecorders.co.uk/seb/radio/ton/ton.wmv

[paulsherwin]

I know you may think this is heresy, but if you digitize the recording you can easily manipulate the speed. I would expect the quality to be best if you play back at slower than the correct speed then speed it up.

Amazing machine.

Paul