The Dictabelt, in early years and much less commonly also called a Memobelt, is an
analog audio recording medium commercially introduced by the
American Dictaphone
Dictaphone was an American company founded by Alexander Graham Bell that produced dictation machines. It is now a division of Nuance Communications, based in Burlington, Massachusetts.
Although the name "Dictaphone" is a trademark, it has ...
company in 1947. Having been intended for
recording dictation and other speech for later transcription, it is a
write-once-read-many medium consisting of a thick transparent
vinyl
Vinyl may refer to:
Chemistry
* Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer
* Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation
* Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry
* Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...
(according to a 1960s
Dictaphone
Dictaphone was an American company founded by Alexander Graham Bell that produced dictation machines. It is now a division of Nuance Communications, based in Burlington, Massachusetts.
Although the name "Dictaphone" is a trademark, it has ...
user manual:
cellulose acetate butyrate) plastic belt wide and around. The belt is loaded onto a pair of metal cylinders, put under tension, then rotated like a
tank tread. It is inscribed with an audio-signal-modulated
helical groove by a
stylus
A stylus is a writing utensil or tool for scribing or marking into softer materials. Different styluses were used to write in cuneiform by pressing into wet clay, and to scribe or carve into a wax tablet. Very hard styluses are also used to En ...
which is slowly moved across the rotating belt. Unlike the stylus of a record cutter, the Dictabelt stylus is blunt and in recording mode it simply impresses a groove into the plastic rather than engraving it and throwing off a thread of waste material. The Dictabelt system was popular, and by 1952, made up 90% of Dictaphone's sales.
Dictabelts were more convenient and provide better audio quality than the reusable
wax cylinders they replaced. The belts can be folded for storage and will fit into an ordinary letter-size envelope. However, the plastic loses flexibility as it ages. If a belt is stored sharply folded for a long time, it will become permanently creased and unplayable without special treatment. Dictabelts were red until 1964, blue from 1964 to 1975, then purple until they were discontinued around 1980. Each has a capacity of about 15 minutes at the standard speed. At least one Dictaphone model featured a half-speed, low-fidelity 30-minute option.
In the 1960s,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
required that all of
its circuit courts be outfitted with Dictabelt machines.
Along with a
Gray Audograph sound recorder, a Dictabelt recorded the police department radio channels in Dallas, Texas, during the
John F. Kennedy assassination.
These recordings were reviewed by the
United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA).
See also
*
John F. Kennedy assassination Dictabelt recording
References
External links
Image- ''History of the Dictation Equipment'' Industry (archived)
Funny, That Doesn’t Sound Like Me- Article with several images
Vintage Tech: Dictaphone Dictabelt 800 Record Cutter ''databits'' via YouTube, uploaded on 2 July 2016
Studies of Mechanical Recording Media with 3D Surface Profiling Methods: Data Collection and Analysis
Audiovisual introductions in 1947
Audio storage
1947 in technology
Products introduced in 1947
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