Panasonic Reel-to-Reel Tape Recorder
Object Details
- Date
- circa 1967
- Medium
- metal, plastic, wire, and foam.
- Dimensions
- 6 7/16 × 13 7/8 × 14 1/2 in. (16.4 × 35.3 × 36.8 cm)
- Caption
- This Panasonic Reel-to-Reel Tape Recorder model RQ-705 was manufactured between 1964 and 1966 by the Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. in Japan and exported to the United States.
- Reel-to-reel audio tape recording used two magnetic tape reels, one to hold the virgin, unrecorded tape and one to receive the recorded tape. The supply reel, also known as the feed reel, was placed in a hub, the end of the tape was manually pulled out of the reel and threaded through mechanical guides and the tape head assembly and attached to the second take-up reel, which was initially empty. This new system of recording on tape revolutionized sound recording and reproduction. Inexpensive reel-to-reel tape recorders were widely used at home for voice recordings in the 1960s. The cassette tape was introduced in 1963 and eventually replaced reel-to-reel recorders for consumer use.
- Dr. Lorenzo Dow Turner, a noted African American linguist, probably bought this recorder for entertainment at home. He last conducted fieldwork in the 1950s, so it is unlikely that he used this recorder for his research.
- Accession Number
- 2003.0032.0393
- Type
- tape recorder
- See more items in
- Anacostia Community Museum Collection
- Data Source
- Anacostia Community Museum
- Restrictions & Rights
- CC0
- Record ID
- acm_2003.0032.0393
