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Re: Dictaphonograph??,or "I've got a strange platter that looks l ike it came from acereal box"



Hello David!

We have some similar items in our collection.  Although the center hole is
circular in ours, I think they're the same type of thing.  The machine that
created ours was used for dictation and transcription.  Unfortunately we
only have pictures of it in use, not the machine itself.  It was called a
Gray PhonAudogrph Electric Soundwriter and was made by the Gray
Manufacturing Co. in Hartford, CT.  They seem to have gone out of business
in 1976.

Unfortunately, that's as far as I've gotten.  I'm not sure if that helps
you, other then to confim that such machines existed.  If you do find
someone that can play your discs, would you relay the imformation?  We've
got oral history interviews on ours that I'd really like to have transferred
for transcription.

Deidre Thieman
BA - Moving Image Arts; MLIS - Master of Library and Information
Science; SAA, AMIA, AFI
Corporate Archivist
Miller Brewing Company
3939 W. Highland Blvd.
PO Box 482
Milwaukee, WI 53201-0482
(414) 931-4435
(414) 931-6318
dthieman@mbco.com



-----Original Message-----
From: David B. Malone [mailto:David.B.Malone@wheaton.edu]
Sent: Thursday, July 27, 2000 2:32 PM
To: ARCHIVES@LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU
Subject: Dictaphonograph??,or "I've got a strange platter that looks
like it came from acereal box"


Greetings,

I popped my head into one of our collections and across a small
platter that looked much like an 45 Single or a mini-LP.  The
sprocket hole is square rather than circular.  It is quite flimsy.
Playing it on a "newer" phonograph brought forth two tracks of
audio and a lot of slipping and sliding.  Playing it on a old, I mean
OLD, phonograph brought forth one track but a lot of pops and
hisses.

This, and I'm sure the dozens of others in the collection (not clearly
described) contains dictation, etc.  Is there a "dictaphonograph"
player out there or can someone point me in a direction (politely)?

Thanks, in advance,




David B. Malone
Head, Archives and Special Collections
Buswell Memorial Library
Wheaton College
Wheaton, IL 60187-5593
David.B.Malone@wheaton.edu
630.752.5707             630.752.5855 FAX
630.265.9025 (pager)

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