[78-L] Cellophone (no, not cellophane, and not Sellotape)

[Benno Häupl]

Here's another oddity.  This was, BTW, my first tape recorder cum record player. 

It's the NORA Selectophon T5 for an 'endless tape' with 70 tracks. 

It had cassettes disguised as books, and inside there was a continuous magnetic tape loop. 
When you inserted the cassete, the tape went around a 'drum' where the recording and 
playback heads were located. The magnetic tape was VERY thick and somewhat rigid. 
There were 70 tracks on this ca. 2" tape. You could directly select the track that you wanted 
to play, but of course when the playback head got there, it was at a random spot of the loop, 
so you were never at the beginning of a rendition - which made recording very difficult. 
 
For the tape, or rather drum speed you could select 3 speeds. The machine came with a 
turntable that you could place on top of the drum, and a DUAL brand tone arm. The three 
speeds of the tape drum made the turntable rotate at 33, 45 or 78rpm.  

The cassettes could record or play up to 3 hours continuously. 

As a matter of interest, the manufacturer NORA had paid a flat fee to the German copyright 
agency GEMA, which permitted indefinately, forever, the public performance of music from 
this machine! This was said in the papers that came with this tape recorder/record player. 

If interested, check these links out. First a recent ebay sale, then the 'Radiomuseum' page. 

http://cgi.ebay.de/NORA-SELECTOPHON-Tonbandgeraet-Breitbandspeicher-/200553091459  
http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/nora_selectophon_t5.html 

A second hand NORA Selectophon was my Christmas present when I was 14 years old.  

Benno