R2R duplication system

[steveidosound]

Has anybody else noticed the Telex / Viking reel to reel duplication system that has been on Ebay for a long time now?
Looks like 1 master and 10 slaves with electronics, for 7" reels (?) at 15 or 7.5 ips. The guy can't seem to give it away....
Ebay # 250284199908

[ironbut]

Pretty interesting Steve. I've been gathering info about reel to reel duplication but I've been a little too distracted to put it together yet. One interesting thing that this duplication line may have been used for is radio spots. Big companies like Coke would make master tapes of their new ads, send them to a duplication service and then distribute them to the hundreds of radio stations throughout the country. They'd usually leave it to the locals to do foreign language versions. Of course, once cart machines made the scene, reels were history as far as ads go. Syndicated programs were still made and duplicated long after that as well as local programing.

I'm trying to find some pictures of some of the early duplication machines. Some had what was called a common mandrel. The common mandrel was a long capstan which ran the tape on several transports whose reel tables were similar to the reel arms on an old movie projector (think early 60's school projectors).

[steveidosound]

I can't find out much about the Telex 235 duplication system, but Telex did make quite a few duplication systems, even into the cassette era.
Telex consumed Magnecord and Viking, 2 earlier names in reel to reel technology. I have an example of each of their machines.
This set up looks to be solid state, so probably 70s era. One picture shows a switch on one of the transports for 15 / 7 1/2, but I noticed that there are only 2 channels of electronics in the little sub module rack. They AFAIK always duplicated both sides at once, so if it were 1/4 track stereo their should be four channels of electronics. It also looks as if there are only 4 head connections in one picture. Perhaps it was set up for 2 track (1/2 track) mono both sides. In which case it would also do 2 track stereo. (Same head configuration.)
So, if nothing else, it would be a source of rugged decks with 2 track heads. I am still pretty sure by the size of it that 10.5" reels would not fit, but not absolutely certain. It looks like a standard transport that they might have used in a lot of configurations from logging recorders to a full machine with electronics for radio stations perhaps. 

With regard to your common mandrel duplicator technology, that sort of thing was used also (I think) in film optical printers or synchronized editing for multiple camera takes with stacks of film (or tape) running in parallel on the same spindles.

One of the more interesting machines I have is a Bell RT360 which allows duplication in real time 1:1 of a tape by means of extra reel turntables located outboard of the ones on the deck. This also allowed the use of 10.5" reels. You threaded the tape to be duplicated on the deck, but through a special set of guides only around the playback head, then the tape to be recorded to goes on the outboard turntables, over the erase and record heads as normal, then under a tab to shield it from the play head then both go out through the single capstan and pinch roller to their respective take up reels! It works. I have tried it.   
A picture...
http://reel2reeltexas.com/vinListBD.html

[ironbut]

Boy Steve,.. you don't see one of those everyday (or I guess I should say most folks don't).
Finding out info on tape duplication isn't exactly easy to find. I've been trying to find out when companies like Ampex started using high speed duplication. One of the main machines that they used was the Ampex 3200. It's funny that it was actually introduced very early (1953) but wasn't used for high speed duplication of music tapes till long after that.
 Sending tapes around the country and the world was the way things were done before video transmission and satellites. Speaking of which, there was a great article that the sci-fi writer Neal Stephenson wrote for Wired (print) years ago that followed the laying of a transoceanic transmission cable that was really great. "Worlds Longest Wire" or something like that.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass.html

Somehow the common mandrel set up reminds me of the old days of large construction projects when they'd build a water wheel which ran a wide leather belt. Carpenters would have saws that had a clutch that would squeeze or release the belt which was always running. I've seen old photos of 5 or 6 guys hooked up to the same belt (looked like about 20 feet long) with saw blades the size of wagon wheels for large cuts. Not exactly OSHA approved if you know what I mean!

[steveidosound]

 Sending tapes around the country and the world was the way things were done before video transmission and satellites. Speaking of which, there was a great article that the sci-fi writer Neal Stephenson wrote for Wired (print) years ago that followed the laying of a transoceanic transmission cable that was really great. "Worlds Longest Wire" or something like that.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.12/ffglass.html

And before that they sent 16" transcription discs and other records and 16 and 35 mm film all over the world by mail, for "delayed broadcast". They still do send 35 mm prints to theaters, but not for much longer.

My friend who is a tube collector knows the history of the transatlatic under sea cables. He has a tube for the last one with inline tube repeater amps that was in service till something amazing like the early 80s without a tube failure! The first such cables were laid for telegraph, without amplification I believe,  before telephone and long distance radio transmission.

BTW, Dokorder also made a home R2R duplicator deck, the 8020 which you can see at the same site, on the same page as the Bell, further down.
http://reel2reeltexas.com/vinListBD.html