General Information

Serial #

173111

Part Number

1

Total Parts

3

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

Predominantly metal unit has silver metal, light grey painted, and grey wrinkle-textured finishes on exterior; off-white moulded synthetic controls and tape reel housings; main body fitted six moulded synthetic (?) feet.

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

28.5 cm

Width

30.9 cm

Height

17.0 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Communications

Category

Sound

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Wollensak

Country

United States of America

State/Province

Illinois

City

Chicago 16

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Quebec

Period

Unknown

Canada

Owned and used by Canadian film maker Bill Mason, who achieved international recognition for his wilderness and canoeing documentaries in the 1960s and 1970s.

Function

To record and play back audio signals on magnetic tape.

Technical

The Bill Mason collection consists of typical cameras and other equipment in the 16 mm format widely used by documentary film makers in Canada in this period. This is a solidly-built portable reel-to-reel tape recorder providing two-track monophonic recording at two tape speeds: 7.5 and 3.75 ips. According to Joyce Mason, her husband recorded sound for the film “Blake” on this machine. His daughter Rebecca recalls it was also used to record sounds of children playing in the snow for use in one of his films. [Ref. 1]

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

All controls, connections, etc. labelled. "WOLLENSAK/ 3m/ COMPANY" appears on casing front. Markings on plate fixed to casing back include "3M/ COMPANY/ MAGNETIC/ TAPE RECORDER/ WOLLENSAK OPTICAL COMPANY/ CHICAGO 16, ILL. U.S.A./ DIVISION OF REVERE CAMERA COMPANY/ A Subsidiary of Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Company/ MODEL T-1500 SERIAL 173111". "220 844 765" crudely etched (by hand) into this plate. Canada Standards Association and Underwriters Laboratories logos also appear on plate. "LICENSED UNDER U.S. PATENTS/ 2,680,232 2,682,578 2,785,692/ AND ARMOUR RESEARCH FOUNDATION/ TO REPLACE TUBES/ REMOVE BOTTOM COVER BY REMOVING/ 8-SCREWS; 4-SCREWS-INLINE WITH, AND/ INSIDE FRONT RUBBER FEET, 2-SCREWS/ ON SIDE PANELS 1/2" ABOVE REAR FEET;/ 2-SCREWS 1" TO THE SIDE OF THE TOP/ COVER HINGES./ A12-14407" printed on decal applied to underside of casing.

Missing

Unknown.

Finish

Predominantly metal unit has silver metal, light grey painted, and grey wrinkle-textured finishes on exterior; off-white moulded synthetic controls and tape reel housings; main body fitted six moulded synthetic (?) feet. Off-white adhesive tape present on casing.

Decoration

N/A