Mysterious 20-Year-Old Analog Media?

discHead asks: "Presently I work for a transcription company. We received an interesting medium that we're having trouble identifying. It looks like a 3.5-inch floppy, but just the magnetic disc itself--no plastic shell, not even a metal hub in the center. It's punched with a small center hole and an additional wedge-shaped hole nearby (but in a different position and smaller than the rectangular hole in a standard floppy's metal hub). It's foil-stamped with a 3M logo and a serial number, but 3M referred us to Imation and Imation is stumped. Our only other clues: we're told it's an analog(!) audio recording and that it dates back to about 1985. Our Google research has yet to turn up anything. Anyone know what in tarnation this thing is and what we can do with it?"

Comments

Olivetti models had such discs

[e**(i pi)-1]

One of the first programmable computers, I had worked on was old Olivetti programmable computer similar to P6060, or P6040. It had such discs. The machine looked like a typewriter, had no screen. The input could be read on a display with 2-3 input lines. It used a Basic type programming language.

Shot in the dark, courtesy of google groups

[moreati]

Starting with this search: audio diskette, 1981-1988

Lead me to posts regarding compusonics who patented and marketted such a technology. Although whether it was analouge is questionable.

Regards, and I'd please let us know any outcome.

Alex

Dictaphone machine

[TFGeditor]

I think what you have might be a disk from a Dictaphone or other dictation/transcriber machine.

I'd start by contacting Dictaphone http://www.dictaphone.com/ , then maybe Google for other Dictaphone contacts, perhaps a museum or broker of "antique" electronic gear.

Re:Huzzah!

[SA Stevens]

Unfortunately, I was responding to the 'general idea' of recording analog to a magnetic disk, not this specific media. The equipment I refer to used flexible disks outside a sleeve, similar to a floppy diskette. I can't remember the brand for certain, since this was 20+ years ago, but I think it was Dictaphone gear.

Dead Media Project anyone? hello?

[RomulusNR]

You guys all suck. First place anyone should have looked was The Dead Media Project. A search on dictation turned up this possiblity:

The Recordon, aka the Mail-A-Voice, was a magnetic disc-based dicatation device made in the 50s. It used a paper-based disc (originally; later it used plastic discs) which in theory could be folded, mailed in an envelope, and played back. The media was sold by 3M but not made by them.

A search on DeadMedia for "magnetic disk" also turns up the Timex Magnetic Recorder, though it's believed this was never actually sold.