Comments on: Magnetic Secretary

By: mickey

mickey — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:34:24 +0000

im almost positive that the writer has never seen a secratary taking a dictation before.

By: Christian Berger

Christian Berger — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:52:27 +0000

@jayessell
Those were actually tape recorders.
Strictly speaking the technology which made high fidelity tape recording possible was first discovered in Japan, then rediscovered in Germany.

By: jayessell

jayessell — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 18:16:16 +0000

I read somewhere (here?) that thanks to High Tech German wire recorders
Hitler’s speaches were broadcasted in high fidelety in every major
German city. The BBC’s technical branch were perplexed and impressed.
After the war several recorders were ‘liberated’ to the USA.

What did YOU do in the war, Mr. Peirce?

By: William Deering

William Deering — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:07:15 +0000

“All I see is a captain”. Will Stockdale in “No Time For Sargeants”?

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 02:58:42 +0000

A few years ago a co-worker of mine indirectly referred to an assistant manager as a “female”, which was overheard by her, and believe me the stuff hit the fan!

Wire recording was common thru the 1950s. Tape recorders were not available in the US until after 1948, when Ampex (Bing Crosby was a major investor) built the first US machines for the broadcast industry.

By: William Deering

William Deering — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 02:24:50 +0000

John M. Hanna: Just a dull “Good Morning” by itself might not get you in trouble today unless you present this old magizine article or some of its words and implications (”contrasted – - – both magnetic in individual ways – - – complete set with attachments – - – playback – - – boss’s lap – - – dictation – - – secretary – - – is a little – - – pound gadget – - – Peirce – - – impulses – - – impulses – - – impulses”). The same thing sixty years ago worked then like it does today – - – it sells other things including magazines.

By: John M. Hanna

John M. Hanna — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:37:16 +0000

Ah. The good ol’ days when sexual harrassment was condoned and expected. Today, just saying “Good morning.” to a female co-worker will get you fined $10,000.00 and jailed for 18 months.

By: Charlie

Charlie — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:09:00 +0000

William Deering: Silly Santa. Everyone knows that the correct response to a child wanting an air rife is “You’ll shoot your eye out!”

By: William Deering

William Deering — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:21:31 +0000

The first reel to reel recorder I experienced in use during that time was at a children’s Christmas program. It was a wire type brought back from war-torn Germany and a real joy for us, a bunch of Indianapolis kids, to hear our recorded voices. However, sometime before that a major shoe store as a promotion was recording kids coversations with Santa on small 78 records. Santa asked my brother, Otto, “You won’t shoot the windows out will you”? When he asked for an air rifle. I still have our record. Belt type office recorders were around then but I didn’t see wide home use of reel to reel tape recorders until later.

By: Casandro

Casandro — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 06:49:27 +0000

Wire recorders? That was a bit outdated in 1947. The rest of the world was working with tape recorders already and most of those were very close to modern standards when it comes to sound qualitly.

Wire recorders just are hard to get working reliably because the wire can turn and you read at another part of the wire than you wrote to.