![]() ![]() Revere started manufacturing tape recorders in the early 1950s, that side of the business never became an important part of the company's output. The Revere brand name had become synonymous with budget cameras soon after the take-over Wollensak models appeared that were mechanically almost-identical to the standard Revere models but had better lenses, more stylish casing, and sold for a premium price. In order to grow that business further the company took over their primary lens and shutter supplier, New Jersey-based Wollensak Optical Co. In the '50s the company was the second largest manufacturer of small movie cameras in the USA. The Revere name is taken from the Revere Copper Company, which provided financial backing for Excel during the depression. which then changed its name to Revere Camera Co. That company was later merged into Excel Radiator Co. They started making budget 8 mm movie cameras in 1939 through a subsidiary run by Briskin's sons. Samuel Briskin, who also started Wollensak Recorders and Opticals.įounded in 1920 in Chicago, Illinois, USA as the Excel Radiator Company by Ukrainian immigrant Samuel Briskin to manufacture car radiators, but started manufacturing some coarse household products later in the decade. The Revere Camera Company was started in 1920 by Mr. When I lived in the Twin Cities I volunteered at the Pavek Museum helping maintain their 1” and quad VTRs. I restore classic TVs and stereos as a hobby. That system also failed to achieve market acceptance and was soon withdrawn. The physical track width and speed of the tape and even the size of the RCA tape cartridge was similar to, though incompatible with, Sony's Elcaset system, introduced in 1976. The format disappeared from retail stores by 1964. ![]() They were also slow to license pre-recorded music tapes for home playback. A factor in the failure of the system was that RCA was slow to produce machines for the home market. Small slot windows extended from the tape hubs toward the outside of the cartridge so that the amount of tape visible on each spool could be seen.ĭespite its convenience the RCA tape cartridge was not a success. Unlike the later Compact Cassette, the RCA tape cartridge incorporated a brake to prevent the tape hubs from moving when the cartridge was not in the player. It is possible to dismantle the cartridge, spool the tape onto a reel, and play it on such a machine. With two interleaved stereo pairs, the track format and speed of the RCA tape cartridge was fully compatible with the slower 3.75 IPS speed of consumer reel-to-reel stereo tape recorders. This speed was not practical for music, but fully acceptable for voice recording. Some models could also play and record at 1.875 IPS, doubling playing time with a significant reduction in sound quality. The RCA tape cartridge format offered four discrete audio tracks that provided a typical playtime of 30 minutes per side of stereo sound, or double that for monophonic sound. Such consumer reel-to-reel machines were capable of superior audio performance, but only at the faster speed. This was half of the top speed of consumer reel-to-reel music recorders, which usually offered both 3.75 IPS and 7.5 IPS speeds. The cartridge played at a standard speed of 3.75 IPS. An auto reverse mechanism in some models allowed the tape to run continuously. Similar to the Compact Cassette, cartridges were reversible and either side could be played. Size comparison of RCA tape cartridge (right) with the more common Compact Cassette Because of its convenience, the RCA tape cartridge system did see some success in schools, particularly in student language learning labs. The same design concept would later be used in the more successful Compact Cassette which was invented by Philips in 1962. ![]() The user was not required to handle unruly tape ends and thread the tape through the machine before use, making the medium of magnetic tape more friendly to casual users. The main advantage of the RCA tape cartridge over reel-to-reel machines was convenience. This timing coincided with the launch of the stereophonic phonograph record. It was introduced in 1958, following four years of development. The RCA tape cartridge (also known as the Magazine Loading Cartridge and Sound Tape) was a magnetic tape format designed to offer stereo quarter-inch reel-to-reel tape recording quality in a convenient format for the consumer market. ![]()
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