Voice Mail - 1967 Style
Following that rubbish Bacon Express video...here's something I hope should be of more interest, a bit of forgotten retro-tech from 1967.
This video is also a segue between two other videos. The first one being the Playtape and the second...well all things being well, you'll get to see what that is in a week or two. However in the meantime please enjoy this look at one company's vision of a future that never came to pass.
Comments (31)
I liked the observation in the video, and here again, about no-rewind. I can see a niche market but when compact cassette was right on its heals makes you wonder. // no paragraphs allowed on patreon lol. // the specific military to civilian correspondence example shown in the advert is interesting. I wonder if they were sold in military bases.
Great to keep seeing new/old technologies! / I guess I need to rewatch - would the play tape fit in and play okay on these and vice-versa? / Also, it's claimed these were a failure but is there evidence beyond not seeing them more in popular media that they "failed"? Could they have been a financial success still for Smith Corona? That company also made many dedicated word processors with CRTs competing with micros in the eighties and just like this product competeting with compact cassette it can be argued those products had fewer features. But often older consumers want single-purpose devices to execute one function well. Those word processors sold well for Smith-Corona. They could be also mistaken as "failures" today but I suspect were financial successes for the company. So I wonder if this product also could have been a success. How can the failure tag be objectively determined?
A music Playtape is recorded on two parallel tracks each taking up half the width of the tape. The Mail Pack records one track that takes up the whole width of the tape. So a playtape played in a Mail Call will play the two parallel tracks simultaneously - you hear two recordings playing at the same time. As far as whether it was a success or not, I’m just basing this on other things I’ve read and the fact that despite having access to a lot of historical documentation online, the only references I could find to the system were an advert in a single 1967 issue of Billboard Magazine and one advert in Life magazine. I’d expect to see more evidence of continued marketing beyond one advert if the product had been accepted in any way. From all the comments in the video not one person so far recalls seeing one of these devices in use at any point. This also wasn’t a business to business product, it was marketed at the public. As a business tool, it would have been pretty useless as a dictation device where rewind was an essential feature...to enable quick re-recording of segments and review of audio for transcription purposes.
Probably the most 60's pieces of design next to the Bond Bug and the spherical T.V. They could appear in a museum of design and not be out of place (Or the Techmoan museum of technological dead ends) Thanks for reviving these, another device I'd never heard of.
And later, there was delayed email, with Pocketmail. My grandparents had one in the late 90s or early 2000s that the rest of the family would send emails to when they were out of town. Unfortunately, they'd often forget to dial up (via acoustic coupler) to get new messages.
This would have been a game changer if Mission Impossible used them. :)
Really enjoyed learning about this piece of tech history. I had no idea it existed. Before you mentioned "2001" I had been thinking it would look right at home in most any episode of the television series "Logan's Run."
Never saw one of these gizmos back in the day - thanks for the demonstration! I'm happy to note a few new clips have been inserted into your credit crawl background video - seems you must be getting more sponsors daily.
Whenever I add a name in, the text speed increases slightband I was getting concerned it was getting too fast, so I added a few new clips in to slow it down. I’m now a tad concerned that it’s getting too long. However it’s a nice problem to have.
Fascinating retro tech - design wise could certainly be a prop out of the The Prisoner TV series! Very enjoyable insight. It is incredible the ease with which we communicate around the world these days.
Great retro tech, definitely the 60's futuristic look. I like how you do the shots of you talking with the monitor showing a photo behind you. Looks very professional!
I’m glad about that. I was wondering how to fill up the other half of the screen...the section that I wasn’t taking up. The big white unused space was looking odd.
I find it fascinating to imagine “the future” through the lens of the 1950s and 1960s. You never cease to amaze me with what you find in forgotten tech.
I was thinking it could have been a prop from 2001, and then you said it, so it was neat to hear I wasn't the only one! I've never heard of these, but beautiful design. There were so many great forward-looking design ideas in the 60's. Now someone needs to mod this into a working cellphone. That'd turn heads!
I’m glad we’re on the same page. For me this is the perfect example of 1967’s vision of 2001.
Wait, I'm confused how exactly does this cook the bacon?
About as well as the other thing.
You know, I have to admit that even after a few months, that credit crawl montage at the end is just hypnotic... I still love it.
I’m glad it’s not getting annoying yet. That was a big concern.
I have not even watched it yet but I am already amazed how you manage to find and come up with all that stuff. Gonna wait for my Mrs so we can watch it together.
You have a unique Mrs there, you're a very fortunate chap.
Great video, thank you. Good to know the old time machine is still working .
Now THATS what i would call NSA proof. :D
By the way... what is that weird sounding stuff in the last few seconds of your video? It sounds like some sort of vintage computer storage being played back as audio.
I asked that a bit back after recognising it from the 6 million dollar man TV program. It's a Universal studios sample that Techmoan uses. I think there is a link in the video description on YouTube. Edit: here it is: <a href="https://youtu.be/5M3-ZV5-QDM" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/5M3-ZV5-QDM</a>
When I first started watching I thought "that is not voice mail!" But then I realized that in the most literal sense, it is more voice-mail than what we think of today as voicemail. But yeah, as I continued watching I kept thinking "why would people use this versus just a standard audio tape?" Well, I guess that's pretty much what they did.
What a nice treat to get 2 videos in the space of a few days! Really enjoyed both of them. Thanks
I've just spotted a bit of unnecessary duplication in my voiceover, I twice mentioned that it's a endless loop cartridge with a 1/8" tape. This could do with being edited out, so I've snipped a couple of seconds out of the video on youtube and they should apply this edit in a few hours or so.
I bet that next video is Quadrophonic. Definitely Quadrophonic.
No this time unfortunately. I don't have the space for a proper quad testing setup.
I won't be able to watch this video until later, but I have to say, your teasers about future videos keep me coming back for more!