A New Recording Medium For Transcribed Message Services

A magnetic recording medium composed of rubber impregnated, with magnetic oxide and lubricant is particularly suited to applications requiring the continuous repetition of short transcribed messages. It affords exceptional life, reliability, and economy in telephone applications, where it is utilized in the form of molded bands stretched over cylinders of the recording mechanisms. In the Bell System there are several applications requiring the repetition of short voice announcements. Some of the existing applications are weather announcements, intercept of calls to vacant and unassigned numbers, quotations of delays on long-distance calls, and certain leased industrial services, such as stock price quotation. Most of these require continuous repetition of messages between 5 and 60 seconds in length. In some the message remains fixed but in others it is changed at frequent intervals. Magnetic recorders offer particular advantages for services of this nature, because they require a minimum of equipment and operating skill to produce durable records which are instantly reproducible without processing. For several years the Bell System has used a magnetic recorder employing a loop of Vicalloy tape in the 3A announcement system to furnish weather announcements, and a similar type of recorder has been used in a leased industrial system at the New York Times. Recently these Laboratories have undertaken the development of transcribed message facilities to meet additional service applications.