History of Dictaphone: An Original Film from 1949 on the DICTAPHONE TIME-MASTER. A full Color Commercial and overview of Dictaphone Dictabelt Recording Models. Since 1907, DICTAPHONE was a leading name in voice recording for office automation, business and personal use. Originally trademarked in 1907 by the Columbia Graphophone Company (a “descendant” of Alexander Graham Bell’s “Volta Laboratory” of 1881) Dictaphone was spun off into a separate company in 1923. Early recording machines used wax-cylinders. However, in 1947, Dictaphone introduced its Dicta-belt, (aka “Memo-Belt”) that could hold 15 minutes of recording time, and recordings were higher quality and more permanent than wax cylinder recordings. This analog method of recording cut a mechanical groove into a plastic belt instead of a wax cylinder. This film describes how the Dictaphone Time-Master Electronic Recording Machine saves time for executives and secretarial staff. Good quality color and sound, followed by sample Dictaphone ads, historical facts about the Dictaphone company. Runs about 5 minutes. Uploaded by Computer History Archives Project (CHAP)
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The Dictabelt is an analog recording medium using transparent vinyl band, 3.5 inches by 12 inches. The Dictabelt stylus was blunt and impressed a groove into the transparent vinyl plastic belt. It could be read about 20 times, before degradation started to set in. A major advantage was that recordings were permanent and admissible in court.
Eventually IBM and others introduced competing machines using an erasable belt made of magnetic tape. Dictaphone eventually added magnetic recording equipment to its product line but continued selling their machines using the Dictabelts, until they were phased out in the 1980’s in favor of magnetic recording equipment.
In 2006, Dictaphone was purchased by Nuance Communications, Inc., an American multinational computer software corporation, based in Burlington, Massachusetts, that markets speech recognition and artificial intelligence software. Microsoft completed a $19.7 billion acquisition of voice technology company Nuance Communications in March 2022.
