An endless tape cartridge is a

tape cartridge Magnetic tape cartridge and magnetic tape cassette both refer to a small plastic unit containing a length of magnetic tape on at least one reel. The unit may contain a second "take-up" reel or interoperate with such a reel in an associated tape dr ...

or cassette that contains magnetic

audio tape An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present ...

that can be played in an

endless loop , also called Eiko or Peko, is a female J-pop singer-songwriter, and producer who is currently affiliated with Heart Company. She is best known for singing the opening themes of the anime series ''Higurashi When They Cry''. Eiko also handles a s ...

, without the need to rewind to repeat.

Description

The endless tape cartridge has a tape transport that allows forward movement only. The magnetic tape can have start and end markers, like a magnetic beacon, an electric conductive splice, a hole that can be optically scanned, or a transparent splice tape. The cartridge was invented by sound engineer Bernard A. Cousino and it dominated the North American market for many years. One of the first products that used the endless tape technology was the Audio Vendor from 1952, an invention of Cousino's. It was registered as patent US2804401A. The tape is passed through an inner ring of loose tape

reel A reel is an object around which a length of another material (usually long and flexible) is wound for storage (usually hose are wound around a reel). Generally a reel has a cylindrical core (known as a '' spool'') with flanges around the ends ...

, where the recording is stored, and looped back through the outer ring of the reel. Initially, this mechanism was to be implemented in a

reel-to-reel audio tape recorder Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, also called open-reel recording, is magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels. To prepare for use, the ''supply reel'' (or ''feed reel'') containing the tape is plac ...

. Later, Cousino developed a plastic case that could be hung up on some existing tape recorders. This cartridge was marketed by

John Herbert Orr John Herbert Orr (August 19, 1911 – May 6, 1984) was an Alabama entrepreneur who formed Orradio Industries, Inc., a high-technology firm that manufactured magnetic recording tape for both professional and consumer markets. In 1945, Orr was among ...

as Orrtronic Tapette. In this generation, the magnetic coating of the tape was wound on the inside of the reel. Later cartridge types had the magnetic layer aligned to the outside of the cartridge, which required a specially designed recorder to play it. One traction of the tape by capstan was added, which allowed users the convenience of just pushing the cartridge into the recorder without having to thread the tape. These cassettes needed no internal space for the

tape head A tape head is a type of transducer used in tape recorders to convert electrical signals to magnetic fluctuations and vice versa. They can also be used to read credit/debit/gift cards because the strip of magnetic tape on the back of a credit card ...

slider because they accessed the tape from outside the cartridge. Based on these new cassettes,

George Eash George H. Eash (May 11, 1911 – July 6, 1980)Cartridge Inventor George Eash Dead ...

developed the

Fidelipac The Fidelipac, commonly known as a "NAB cartridge" or simply "cart", is a magnetic tape sound recording format, used for radio broadcasting for playback of material over the air such as radio commercials, jingles, station identifications, and mu ...

cartridge in 1954. PlayTape and the

8-track tape The 8-track tape (formally Stereo 8; commonly called eight-track cartridge, eight-track tape, and eight-track) is a magnetic tape sound recording technology that was popular from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, when the compact cassette, wh ...

and endless

compact cassette The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...

s for the announcement text of

answering machine An answering machine, answerphone or message machine, also known as telephone messaging machine (or TAM) in the UK and some Commonwealth countries, ansaphone or ansafone (from a trade name), or telephone answering device (TAD), was used for a ...

s were made with this technique. The take-up roll got a table and the

perforation A perforation is a small hole in a thin material or web. There is usually more than one perforation in an organized fashion, where all of the holes collectively are called a ''perforation''. The process of creating perforations is called perfor ...

for traction was removed. There was no rear winding roll inside such a cassette so rewinding was impossible. Previously, a similar technique was used to store

Tefifon The Tefifon is an audio playback format, developed and manufactured in Germany, that utilizes cartridges loaded with an endlessly looped reel of plastic tape. It is somewhat similar to the later 4-track and 8-track magnetic audio tape cartridge ...

's vinyl sonic tape in the Tefi cartridge. Another invention patented by Cousino was the graphite coating applied to the bottom side of the tape in endless cartridges. The coating allowed endless tape to be pulled out without crinkling it. 8-track cassettes also used the coating which caused the bottom side of the tape to be grey in colour.{{citation, editor-surname1= Nielsen Business Media Inc, periodical=Billboard, title=Frictionless Tape Ready, issue=28, publisher=Nielsen Business Media, Inc., page=50, date=1963-04-20, language=German, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YQsEAAAAMBAJ, access-date=2018-05-02

Technological predecessor of the endless cartridge

* Magnetic

(1933) *

(1936) – the vinyl sonic tape was similarly stored in the Tefi cartridge, but without any reel * Audio Vendor – an assembly to install on a reel-to-reel tape recorder device by Bernard Cousino * Stereo tape (1953) – first stereo audio storage for end users

List of endless tape cartridges

The different

data In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete values that convey information, describing quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted ...

and sound cartridges in chronological market launch order: * 1950s: Orrtronic Tapette * 1959: 3-track tape /

/ NAB-CARTridge "NAB-CART" /

Rowe Customusic Rowe Customusic is a background music system from the 1960s and 1970s. Up to six Fidelipac type C endless-loop magnetic tape cartridges can be loaded in the player, allowing up to 60 hours of playback. The case is 13⅝ " wide, 11⅛" high and 13¾ ...

used the large C-type Fidelipac * 1960: Rediffusion Reditune * 1962: 4-track tape, also called

Muntz Stereo-Pak The Muntz Stereo-Pak, commonly known as the 4- track cartridge, is a magnetic tape sound recording cartridge technology. The Stereo-Pak cartridge was inspired by the Fidelipac 3-track tape cartridge system invented by George Eash in 1954 and ...

or "CARtridge" * 1960s: Mohawk Message Repeater Cartridge * 1966:

, also called Stereo-8 or 8-Track * 1966: PlayTape * 1967: SCM Mail Call, reused the Playtape cartridge * 1969: endless

– for the announcement in

s * 1971: HiPac, * 1975: Ponkey, reused the HiPac cartridge * 1983:

ZX Microdrive ZX Microdrive unit The ZX Microdrive is a magnetic-tape data storage system launched in July 1983 by Sinclair Research for its ZX Spectrum home computer. It was proposed as a faster-loading alternative to the cassette and cheaper than a flo ...

Data Cartridge and

tape drive A tape drive is a data storage device that reads and writes data on a magnetic tape. Magnetic tape data storage is typically used for offline, archival data storage. Tape media generally has a favorable unit cost and a long archival stability. ...

– for data storage and backup * ~1985: Bandai Micro Cartridge * ~1987: Pocket Rockers

References

Sound technology