Communications - Overview
Tools of communication have transformed American society time and again over the past two centuries. The Museum has preserved many instruments of these changes, from printing presses to personal digital assistants.
The collections include hundreds of artifacts from the printing trade and related fields, including papermaking equipment, wood and metal type collections, bookbinding tools, and typesetting machines. Benjamin Franklin is said to have used one of the printing presses in the collection in 1726.
More than 7,000 objects chart the evolution of electronic communications, including the original telegraph of Samuel Morse and Alexander Graham Bell's early telephones. Radios, televisions, tape recorders, and the tools of the computer age are part of the collections, along with wireless phones and a satellite tracking system.
"Communications - Overview" showing 725 items.
Page 4 of 73
Cassette Tape Recorder
- Description (Brief)
- The Scott model 2560 Casseiver combined an AM/FM stereo receiver with a cassette tape deck. Scott, a manufacturer of high-end radio receivers, adopted the cassette format invented by Philips in 1962. Philip’s cassette was one of several on the market. After its introduction in their Norelco line, the company offered free licences to other manufacturers who adopted the format. The original price on this Scott Casseiver was about $300, about $1700 in 2012 dollars.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1969
- maker
- H.H. Scott, Inc.
- ID Number
- 1997.0080.01
- accession number
- 1997.0080
- catalog number
- 1997.0080.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Cassette Tape Recorder and Radio
- Description (Brief)
- This Radio Data System (RDS) demonstration car radio was used in a 1995 ceremony on Capitol Hill marking the establishment of the 100th RDS-capable broadcast station, WKYS-FM in Washington, DC. RDS technology consisted of an inaudible text data stream transmitted from specially-equipped FM stations. The data included artist identification, community-service bulletins and traffic information. The demonstration receiver also includes a cassette tape deck with Dolby noise reduction. Engineer Ray Dolby designed a “sound compander” in the mid-1960s to improve audio output quality of recordings while working at Ampex and later founded a company to improve this technique.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1995
- maker
- Delco Electronics
- ID Number
- 1998.0073.01
- accession number
- 1998.0073
- catalog number
- 1998.0073.01
- model number
- 16174681
- serial number
- 3100085
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Magnetic Belt Recorder
- Description (Brief)
- This Executary dictation machine was designed to allow people to record letters and other information for later transcription. Designs for dictating machines date back to Edison’s cylinder phonograph, and magnetic recorders were also adapted for this application as they became available. IBM introduced the Execuary in 1960 and used a magnetic belt as recording medium. Less likely to break than a thin tape, the belt could be folded and mailed to correspondents with similar machines. The unit could record two tracks, one for the dictation content and a parallel track for instructions to the transcriber.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1964
- maker
- International Business Machines Corporation
- ID Number
- 1999.3029.01
- nonaccession number
- 1999.3029
- catalog number
- 1999.3029.01
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Telephone Answering Machine
- Description (Brief)
- While telephone answering machines date to the early twentieth century, commercial units did not begin to enter the U.S. market until the 1960s. AT&T executives feared that users might cut back on telephone use if recording devices were widely adopted. The company sought to block the introduction of answering machines even while their engineers made significant technical advances in magnetic recording technology.
- This model 100 “Record-O-Phone” by Robosonics was one of the early, commercially available answering machines. Introduced in 1963, these machines cost several hundred dollars each and were aimed at business customers. The unit used a reel of plastic recording tape to record incoming messages. The unit’s cradle-arms were placed beneath the handset of a desk telephone and lifted the handset off the base in response to an incoming call. Since the unit is not electrically connected to the telephone, the user avoided sanction by the telephone company.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1964
- maker
- Robosonics Inc.
- ID Number
- 2000.0101.01
- catalog number
- 2000.0101.01
- accession number
- 2000.0101
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Telephone Answering Machine
- Description (Brief)
- Ansafone Corporation first sold telephone answering machines in the United Stated in 1960. Developed by Japanese immigrant Yujiro Yamamoto, the Ansafone used a single tape cartridge system for incoming messages. Another tape looped through the machine and played the outgoing message. The user placed an ordinary desk phone on top of the Ansafone. Two arms slid under the handset. An incoming call would cause the arms to lift the handset and play the outgoing message. Once the incoming message was recorded, the Ansafone replaced the handset in the cradle, hanging up the phone.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1968
- maker
- Ansafone Corporation
- ID Number
- 2000.0101.02
- catalog number
- 2000.0101.02
- accession number
- 2000.0101
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Telephone Answering Machine
- Description (Brief)
- While some answering machines used special recording formats, this model 757 “Dictaphone” used standard cassettes for both incoming and outgoing messages. The user could set the machine to record a 30 second incoming message or use a “continuous” setting to record however long a message the caller wanted to leave. A text transcription of the outgoing message shows this machine was used at the Indiana University Dental Clinic.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1985
- maker
- Pitney Bowes
- ID Number
- 2000.0101.03
- catalog number
- 2000.0101.03
- accession number
- 2000.0101
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Telephone Answering Machine
- Description (Brief)
- The model 1100 Code-a-Phone was one of several telephone answering machines Ford industries produced in the early 1980s. Not everyone appreciated the new technology. Some callers, offended to be talking to a machine instead of a person, would hang up when the machine began playing the outgoing message. Sensing a market opportunity, Ford Industries began selling an inexpensive book, “How To Make Your Code-a-Phone Talk Funny,” with the goal of using humor to smooth ruffled feathers.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1982
- maker
- Ford Industries, Inc.
- ID Number
- 2000.0101.05
- catalog number
- 2000.0101.05
- accession number
- 2000.0101
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Telephone Answering Machine
- Description (Brief)
- The model 5500 Code-a-Phone was one of several telephone answering machines Ford industries produced in the early 1980s. These answering machines were produced for differing markets. The model 5500 featured a metal case and front-facing controls. The design, intended for commercial rather than residential use, was durable and easy to use for a seated receptionist. This particular unit was used in a hospital.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1981
- maker
- Ford Industries, Inc.
- ID Number
- 2000.0101.06
- catalog number
- 2000.0101.06
- accession number
- 2000.0101
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Telephone Answering Machine
- Description (Brief)
- This PhoneMate model PM-800S answering machine bears a label that reads: "California Public Utilities Commission Equipment Authorized for Direct Connection to Telephone Network." The Bell System resisted the development of telephone answering machines for several reasons, one of which was fear that devices produced outside of Bell’s tightly controlled research and testing environment might prove harmful to the overall system. California regulators adopted a certification program whereby manufacturers could demonstrate that their equipment would not damage Bell equipment, and hence was safe for customers to use.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- ca 1975
- maker
- PhoneMate
- ID Number
- 2000.0101.07
- catalog number
- 2000.0101.07
- accession number
- 2000.0101
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
Telephone Answering Machine
- Description (Brief)
- This “AutoMatic TelePhone” unit combines an answering machine with a telephone. Like many early answering machines, the tape is not in a removable format. Twenty minutes of recording time is permitted before the tape must be erased and reset to the beginning. A more advanced model featured a remote access feature that allowed the user to use a small tone-generator to activate the machine from any telephone.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- date made
- 1980
- maker
- American Telecommunications Corporation
- ID Number
- 2000.0101.08
- catalog number
- 2000.0101.08
- accession number
- 2000.0101
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center
- Next Page