I have something like that here, someone gave it to me a few years ago. Said
there was something wrong with it but I plugged it in and it worked great
though the turn table rubber was dried up but a little rubber cement fixed
that right up, I made a nice smooth pad with it.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Anthony Vece" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 4:42 PM
Subject: Re: IPOD
> Hi Martin & List;
>
> My Father went to the working home for the blind at 36th and Lancaster
> Ave.
> in Philly and secured a brand new machine.
> You could smell the newness of the rubber cover over the turntable.
>
> And, the smell of the various tubes and components.
>
> The only thing I didn't like about them was that the tone arm was a little
> heavy even by the standards at that time.
>
> But, I remember the warmth that came out of the quarter inch earphone
> jack.
>
> Incidentally, does anyone know who made those machines?
>
> I use to play my Sinatra Dorsey mono RCA albums on that machine and they
> sounded fantastic.
>
> 73 De Anthony W2AJV
> [log in to unmask]
> ECHOLINK NODE NUMBER: 74389
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Martin McCormick" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 3:51 PM
> Subject: Re: IPOD
>
>
>> Anthony Vece writes:
>>> Do you remember the old TalkingBook machine that were or, looked very
>>> similar to a Webcore machine?
>>>
>>> They were out in the early 60's.
>>
>> I've got to respond to this.
>>
>> I worked for the Oklahoma Library for the Blind in the
>> seventies, the Summer of 71, 72, 73 and 2 years from 1974
>> through Summer of 1976. I actually worked on a ton of those
>> "black boxes" as they were called in 1971.
>>
>> It was actually kind of lucky for me because the state
>> had this program where they would hire college students in the
>> Summer to work for Visual Services which was the next larger
>> scope in our state's Department of Human Services.
>>
>> Usually students were not terribly welcome, but we would
>> do odd jobs in the vending stands or at the Library for the
>> Blind.
>>
>> That usually meant checking Talking Books for damage,
>> missing records and the occasional foreign object such as the
>> hash pipe equipped with residue and or a swarm of cockroaches
>> that some of the patrons mailed back to us on occasion.
>>
>> I didn't find either of those things, but I sure heard
>> of them.
>>
>> I started out that first Summer typing addresses on form
>> letters from a Dictaphone and it was bone-crushingly dull.
>> Answering the phone was only slightly better because it was
>> interesting to meet the various folks in our other Visual
>> Services offices all over the state and the occasional client.
>>
>> Then, they found out I liked to do mechanical things and
>> could solder, etc, and I spent the rest of the Summer in the
>> Talking Book repair facility that Oklahoma has.
>>
>> The Summer of 1971, the Library of Congress was shipping
>> out thousands of conversion kits to modify all those old
>> machines to play the 8-and-1-third RPM disks.
>>
>> Those machines were built like army tanks. The amplifier
>> was a metal chassis with 3 or 4 tubes, a power transformer and
>> an audio matching transformer. They sounded pretty decent, which
>> I am sure, some of you remember, and the new machines would
>> always ship with a test disk recorded on 33-and-1-third on one
>> side and 16-and-2-thirds on the other.
>>
>> What we had to do was remove the old turntable and
>> motor and trash it, and then install this kit of new parts
>> consisting of a new motor that ran at 1800 RPM instead of 3600
>> RPM, the rubber drive wheel, and turntable.
>>
>> We would then connect the motor to the power leads and
>> it was ready to have a second lease on life.
>>
>> I think you also had to drill out one new hole in the
>> turntable board, but that was certainly no problem.
>>
>> That made for an interesting Summer.
>>
>> One thing the guy who worked there all year told me was
>> about the time somebody who had a bit of a problem with the
>> bottle sent in a machine in to which he had puked beer.
>>
>> The worst one of those old black boxes I ever saw was
>> one that had been handled roughly in the mail. The nut and bolt
>> that held one end of the audio transformer had shaken out and
>> the transformer swung around on the remaining screw and smashed
>> one of the tubes.
>>
>> The machine had a nice jingle to it with all that glass
>> and, when I turned it on after repairing all the obvious damage,
>> more glass spewed out from under the turntable as it would get
>> caught between the motor shaft and drive wheel.
>>
>> Any how, those old machines were useful for a very long
>> time. We also scavenged the amplifier chassis out of several of
>> them and used them for parts and even once as a line driver
>> amplifier in our radio reading service.
>>
>> Martin McCormick WB5AGZ Stillwater, OK
>> Systems Engineer
>> OSU Information Technology Department Telecommunications Services Group
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
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