NOW are we all convinced that we need to SHUT OUT NON-SUBSCRIBERS!?!?
JAY!!!!!
On Sat, 2 Feb 2002, kriss rolo wrote:
> These are the items that iam interested in selling..
> Could you help me with some details on the goods, history, origin etc.
> are these worth anything and if so who would i contact with regards to
> selling them? and the best way to sell them ie auction etc
>
> APOLOGISE IF YOU HAVE ALREADY RECEIVED THIS E-MAIL
>
> JPEGS ARE AVAILABLE AT YOUR REQUEST
>
> MANY THANX
>
>
> return e-mail address krissrolo_at_aol.com
>
> UK VEHICLE REG N 64 C0N
>
>
> item 1
>
>
> hand carved round table with metal chain link in the middle
>
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>
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> item 2
>
> magnum laurent perrier vintage 1988 champagne
>
>
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> item 3
>
> miniture football on stand from euro96 signed by pele and bobby charlton
>
>
>
> item 4
> is a bit more interesting. its a protana minifon attache, as u will see
> ive enclosed notes from a web site regarding this and you will see back in
> the 50's it cost $340.00 so i could imagine this to be worth a bit. it
> also has an original tape inside i do not know what is on this tape, but
> judging by who made it and the cost of the machine, the tape could have
> some important information on it. heres the note.....
>
>
>
> The Minifon, developed in the early 1950s by Monske GMBH of Hanover(or by
> Protona GMBH- I'm not certain), was an ultra-miniaturized, battery
> operated magnetic recording device. It could not (initially at least)
> record the full range of sounds and was thus limited to voice recording,
> but it did offer easy portability in a very small package. The idea of
> offering a pocket dictating machine was novel, since dictation had
> previously been done in the office. However, it was thought that people
> like salesmen could take the machine "on the road" with them. Once on the
> market, the Minifon's promoters discovered that many people took advantage
> of the recorder's small size to make secret recordings to be used as
> evidence, as in court.<BR>
> <BR>
> The "legitimate" use of the Minifon, as a dictating machine, was somewhat
> problematical. Recordings made on regular dictating equipment were usually
> letters, and thus were normally sent almost immediately to a typist. The
> Minifon offered no obvious advantages over standard dictation equipment
> for office use, but its developers hoped to cultivate new uses for
> dictation equipment, such as stock taking in warehouses, or the use of the
> machine as a substitute for note-taking by reporters, insurance adjusters,
> salesmen, and others.
>
> In its original form, the Minifon was a wire recorder, using a type of
> wire medium developed by the Armour Research Foundation of Chicago and
> employed in many similar devices since the late 1940s. The machine at its
> introduction in 1952 had a recording time of one hour, which was
> remarkably long, and weighed only about 3 pounds at a time when a typical
> office dictating machine weighed upwards of 10 pounds. It accomplished
> this small size and light weight in part through the use of miniature
> tubes and clever mechanical design. The basic machine cost $289.50-- a
> price that sounds high today but was very much in line with competing
> office dictating machines.
>
> The parent company attempted to set up distribution, sales and service
> networks in the United States. It established a business office called the
> Minifon Export Corp in New York, and an existing company, Harvey Radio in
> New York City became the main distributor. Although smaller tape recorders
> appeared at about the same time, the main competition in the voice
> recording field was from an American company, Mohawk, which made a small,
> battery-operated cartridge tape recorder called the Migetape. Both
> products sold less than 10,000 units per year in the U.S.<BR>
>
> After a few years, the Minifon was modified to use transistors and
> magnetic tape, further lowering its weight and cost. By 1962 the basic
> machine weighed in at only 1.5 pounds. Competition by this time had helped
> bring the cost down to $249.50.
>
> The Minifon after about 1962 was distributed by the international
> conglomerate ITT through its subsidiary in the U.S., Federal Electric
> Corp. A little later, distribution was taken over by the ITT Distributor
> Products Division in Lodi, New Jersey. (I don't know whether these were
> the same company with different names)
>
> By the time ITT became associated with this product, it had taken on the
> name of Minifon "Attache," and a new line of models and options appeared.
> These included a hi-fi model, the 978H, which sold for $330.50.Usinga
> two-track, 1/4 inch tape cartridge operating at 1 7/8 inches per second,
> the machine claimed a frequency response of up to 12,000 Hz, plus or minus
> 3db.
> The coming of magnetic tape did not completely displace wire. The Model
> 240 series of recorders introduced in the early 1960s were probably the
> last wire recorders in regular production. The 240L, at a price of $269.50
> used a special long-playing wire cartridge that held 4 hours of wire.
> Otherwise it looked like both the tape model and the 240S, which used a
> 2-hour wire cartridge and sold for $249.50.
>
> Another innovation was the introduction of more conventional recorders.
> After years of offering only "half" of a complete dictation system,
> Minifon finally developed a restyled, non-portable "office" machine,
> mainly for use by a transcriber, with pedal controls.
>
> By the mid-1960s, Minifon was trying to market its machines as
> multi-purpose devices suitable for nearly any recording need. In addition
> to the hi-fi and long-playing machines, the company offered an astounding
> variety of optional equipment such as foot controls, microphones, external
> amplifiers and loudspeakers, headsets, external power supplies, telephone
> recording attachments, conference recording adapters. One of the most
> interesting options were the miniature microphones intended to allow users
> to make "spy" recordings. In addition to a small tie-clip microphone, the
> Minifon could be equipped with a microphone disguised as a wrist- watch.
>
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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Received on Sat Feb 02 2002 - 04:23:16 GMT