This group of reel to reel tapes and booklets help highlight the fascinating story about how the Germans were using magnetic tape before anyone else, and what the Allies though about it when they found out. For more on the German invention of magnetic tape you can read my blog here . This group would make a nice complement to the Magnetofon News Clippings I offer seperately.
The reels:
This group consists of 6 complete WW2 Magnetofon tapes and canisters in their wooden carry case and 2 empty cans. Sadly I have not yet been able to play any to verify the content. Three say they are blank, but the other three reputedly have recordings on from 1944 suggesting these were most likely manufactured in that year or shortly before. The recordings appear to be from the Kreigsberichter or Waffen SS War Reporters company. Interestingly by the end of the war a new Type LG tape was being manufactured that was the best quality yet and I’m trying to work out if this tape is therefore the standard L or LG form.
While vast quantity of magnetic tape was produced after the war, surviving tape from the war or before is understandably rare as much would have been destroyed by the Allies and intervening years. The included British report suggests 86,000 km of this tape was made by AG Farben between 1943-4 (which at the regular 1000m per reel roughly equates to 86,000 reels). It also suggests a total of 175,000 km of tape was made between 1939-45. To me 175,000 potential tapes sounds very high and may have been Farben over-inflating their numbers somewhat.
The booklets:
To me these are the most fascinating part of this group. As the Allies began to capture Magnetofon equipment and reels at the end of the war they suddenly realised there was something potentially important about this invention. Therefore both the US and UK quickly commissioned their specialists to look into this new recording medium and the companies who produced it.
There are three booklets included here which are all complete and in good but used condition-
US FIAT Report no 705 from Jan 1946 titled ‘High Frequency Magnetofon Magnetic Sound Recorders’ (44 pp- text, photos & diagrams)
British Intelligence (BIOS) report no 951 from Jan 1946 titled ‘The Magnetofon Sound Recording & Reproducing System’ (98 pp- text photos & diagrams)
Combined Intelligence Report no 1,7,9 from April 1945 titled ‘Organisation of Telefunken’ (43 pp- text and lists only)
This grouping is great for anyone interested in the checkered history of magnetic tape.
