£295.00
This fascinating and very possibly unique manual is a must for anyone interested in preserving the important development of audio and tape recording during WW2. Produced by the Airborne Instrument Laboratory at Columbia University in 1944 it was a working manual for a prototype high fidelity steel tape recording device which they were working on in Secret for the US military. Since I can find absolutely no mention of the project even by the AIL in their detailed summary of their wartime activities in 1945, one can only surmise that the recorder failed to get past the development phase. Indeed since no public records seem to exist about this device, and this is merely ‘copy number 4’ of the hand created manual, there is an extremely high chance that this sole document is the only surviving evidence of its existence.
You can read more about the manual and why the idea perhaps failed here in a blog post .
The manual is offered in original untouched condition. The front cover has come away slightly from the pages having only been stapled in the first place and there is a small tear in the spine cloth. The pages are all present. As a sign that this really was a bespoke or unique manual all the images included are not printed onto paper but are real photos on photographic paper, overlaid modifications are present and every image bears a censor stamp to the back. The manual includes detailed pull out schematics at the back.
Dimensions: 28.7 cm high x 22 cm wide. Over 55 printed pages plus 12 full page photographic images.
1 in stock
