Voice Mail - 1967 Style: The Smith-Corona Mail Call

[@iminzahouse]

My grandma had one from my father when he was in Vietnam he says it was better then writing because he could hear grandmas voice it brought him comfort

[@purrbox7514]

Judging by the number of comments it would appear they marketed this somehow through the military. Very clever.

[@laszu7137]

The moment I opened this video. I remembered that scene in the movie Hamburger Hill where one of the soldiers received a voice message form his girlfriend. Sometime around year 2000 I used to send small VHS like that. LoL.

[@speedstriker]

If you see a story with a detail that look uncannilly similar to your anecdote, know that it is nothing but a very very unlikely coincidence.

[@justinpipes85]

Hell 17 year old Lawrence Fishburne died in Apocalypse Now! listening to his mother's voice. It keeps playing as he's dying. That shit still breaks my heart.

[@souvikrc4499]

@@laszu7137 So was it VHS-C or Video8?

[@Immashift]

I actually vividly remember my dad and his Sony DC-5 out at any family occasion. With us camping, any time we went anywhere, any time the family got together. He'd record 90 minute cassettes and then every six months or so he'd send a box of them to our relatives in Germany and we'd get a box back around the same time from them. He did this all the way into the 2000s because it was the format all the older folks were used to. Still got all the tapes - they're in my fireproof safe as some of my most treasured possessions nowadays.

[@originalhulahoop72]

A Techmoan I haven't watched yet? No idea why this came up in my feed! Wash your hands everybody!

[@solidamber]

At first i thought thr idea was rubish, but when i read the comments that it was marketed at the military. I changed my mind, it must have been very comforting and raised moral for a soldier in the Vietnam war to hear his loved ones voice rather than a letter.

[@randomcow505]

@knowledge share BRUH MOMENT ALEART, REDDIT---SPY---IN THE--- COMMENT SECTION

[@ashasaur]

All of these old tape formats are simply fascinating. These companies put tremendous amounts of effort and R&D into these things for some of them to just be dead on arrival. Thanks once again for the quality content!

[@MasticinaAkicta]

Tape has gotten pretty far since its early days. All the inventions, research, work done to make tape keep audio better. Finally able to put music on it in decent quality up to Dolby. But it began humbly as a way for the germans to be able to record and move spoken word around. The allies were surprised just how hitler could be at two places at the same time doing the same speech. In the same quality .. eerie indeed. I am happy that the american radio stations took magnetic tape and saw its potential for allot more.

[@69waveydavey]

My Dad made the Lancashire evening post by ringing my Grandad in Seattle in 67, "Preston man makes transatlantic telephone call".

[@MrRaulstrnad]

how far we have come

[@MrRaulstrnad]

...and how far we have to go

[@ArndroidInc]

My dad and I sent compact cassettes to and from each other when I was stationed in Korea. It was nice hearing each other's voice as well as the family and the children.

[@xaenon]

My girlfriend once sent me a bunch of tapes when I was overseas - I got a big 'ol care package one day while in the Mediterranean on a six-month deployment. Cookies, a big colorful ol' blob of what used to be gummi worms (still tasty, though), local newspaper articles of interest, photos, and so on - plus cassettes. Messages from friends, my parents, and one tape with a very special voice message from her (with instructions to listen to it with headphones, wink wink....). That tape with her special message was like gold in my hands; she had no idea how close I was to going AWOL after hearing it. To this day, I think the only thing that actually stopped me was the fact I was on a ship...... Our next port of call was definitely a temptation, believe me.

[@ciphermatrix]

Spot on, those colours were pure 2001 aesthetic. The future never looks like the future when it arrives!

[@kylejscheffler]

Graham Ferguson usually just looks like a slightly shinier version of today

[@kylejscheffler]

Graham Ferguson usually just looks like a slightly shinier version of today

[@Starcrunch72]

Yes the time passed from future to present is equal to the time passed from the present to the past...

[@tyttuut]

@Kali Southpaw The future ain't what it's going to be...

[@FIXTREME]

If it was REALLY 2001, the phones would be neon coloured and transparent like a Gameboy

[@dragonskunkstudio7582]

5:20 Looks like James May 20 years ago.

[@despicabledog]

I thought the same thing ahhaha

[@funkymonkey1198]

I'm gonna get a wig. Hair makes one look much younger

[@errordtp]

C'mon, i want wrote that right now :D

[@kristiansvalland4595]

thinking back to the moment you point out, lol, yeah i def see it.. haha

[@ZiggyTheHamster]

I just watched James May review the Countach in season 3 and it's eerily similar to Techmoan's character.

[@OpenRoader]

I still have tapes from the early 1970's that contain the voices of my grand parents. It's nice to hear their voices again.

[@gymnasiast90]

I made to sure to have a recording of my grandmother's voice before dementia really kicked in. I had her read a children's poem she used to read to us when we were little. (She's still alive, but it's very hard to have a conversation with her now. Ugh, it's not nice at all seeing loved ones deteriorate like that.)

[@OpenRoader]

gymnasiast90 you'll cherish those recordings one day and be glad to have them.

[@gymnasiast90]

I already am glad, really. Especially since I did it in the nick of time.

@@gymnasiast90 / Open Roader That's really nice and glad you both have audio to go along with the memories. I wish I had had presence of mind to do something similar with my grandparents. I ought to do similar where my mum and dad are concerned, they're not getting any younger 😔

[@markmarkofkane8167]

You should back those recordings up if you haven't already . Just in case. ;)

[@DangerNut]

Techmoan: Every day I look to see if you have made a new video. The things you talk about just fascinate me. I just waned to thank you for what you do. You are my favorite channel. Don't stop. Thanks again for what you do.

[@MrJPEzra]

DangerNut while my favorite channel is Braille Skateboarding, this channel is definitely in my top 5, heck top 3 even. I really like vsauce too so it's kind of a tie for 2nd. But I agree whole heartedly with everything else that you have said.

[@purrbox7514]

It is a great channel isn't it. I've always had a fascination with old technology even as a child in the 80's I was always curios about old computers, punch card storage and 8 tracks. I like watching old technology programs where they try to predict the future.

[@cnugent9499]

this and Oddity Archive are my 2 favs

[@Oldbmwr100rs]

The "Mail call" was marketed to military, and that's how I got my pair. A neighbor was in Vietnam and he and his wife were sending these tapes back and forth using the military postal system. I was given a pair of these with a box of tapes I was told to erase (as there were still recordings on them). Some of the tapes were relabeled playtape cartridges, so I figure this was a way to take advantage of an unsuccessful format to use existing parts stock.

[@dcan911]

Do did you erase the tapes?

[@Oldbmwr100rs]

@@dcan911 Oh yeah.

[@tomahan044]

Just want to say tis is one of those channels that just has nice quality content Love it

[@sideshowbob1544]

This is one of my favorite channels! I have a 3340s myself still in working condition, with the mixer, meter bridge, and remote too.

[@cmonkey63]

Analog heaven! And I'm so glad you mentioned 2001 Space Odyssey. You snatched the words from my mouth. I used to have a Major Matt Mason set, and his spacesuit was exactly the same colour. Well done.

[@jafizzle95]

How is this comment 19 hours old on a 4 hour old video??

[@ClassicVideos80s]

He's a time traveller.

[@Techmoan]

Yes, he invents time travel next year.

[@LyonsdenBlog]

My first thought was actually Space 1999 but yeah 2001 is an even closer match. These things just scream 1960's - don't think any other time period would have produced such a design. Fascinating to get a glimpse of this technology though... would probably have never known about them during my lifetime if not for this video. Thanks Mat!

[@jafizzle95]

Ah makes sense. I guess this was uploaded and shared only with Patrons before being released to the public.

[@twocvbloke]

Reminds me of the armrest controls on Picard's centre seat on the Enterprise-D... :P

[@amorembalming]

twocvbloke haha, absolutely. Great spot!

[@flyingninja1234]

twocvbloke - I thought that too.

[@xcvsdxvsx]

Reminds me of A Clockwork Orange.

[@BillAnt]

Or perhaps the foreshadow of the Personal Digital Communicator phone. ;)

[@EATABAGOFHELL]

When you mentioned the price differential ($5.50 vs $0.10) my immediate thought was "it's gonna be some absurd gizmo that plays a recorded voice message at 50x speed over the phone line where a second device receives it and slows it down for listening". Just snail-mailing tapes back and forth seems disappointingly sane by comparison.

[@lemonslice2233]

That's an interesting idea, lol.

[@xaenon]

Something similar was done with electronic forums before the widespread advent of the Internet. You could log into a BBS and 'download' a compressed message packet that a bit of software called an Offline Mail Reader would decompress, parse, and display for you. This was a big deal because most BBSs had limits with regard to the time you could be logged in. You could reply to messages in the software, then compress a reply packet to upload, minimizing your connect time.

[@straightpipediesel]

That idea was first used during WWII to shorten the length of radio transmissions so that the enemy couldn't use radio direction finding techniques. It's called a burst encoder. It was later used by spies to evade detection.

[@xaenon]

+straightpipediesel That is interesting. I did not know that. It makes sense, though. I just love learning new things. Thank you for the information.

[@anononomous]

I think if you came up with that idea 60/70 years ago you might have made your millions 🙂 Basically a simple commercial version of a burst encoder for home use that allowed you to send long-ish messages over a normal but very short and cheap phone call using a device at both ends.

[@kencur9690]

“Hello Corona? It’s Agent Smith. It’s time.” - The Smith-Corona call, December 2019.

[@Jwend392]

Look at the way one of those people in that ad is dressed at 2:19. A young man in an olive drab shirt and baseball cap. Wonder if the idea they were trying to seed was "Buy one of these for yourself, and another for your boy in the Service and you can send voice messages to him when he's deployed to Vietnam." During the Vietnam War, there were electronics stores that would allow you to record a message for a loved one in the military on either to reel to reel tape or cassette and then send it off for a nominal fee.

[@scootermom1791]

Good thinking! I bet they were doing that.

[@WizardOfAtlantis]

Your videos are a real joy. Thanks, man.

[@Robots0verHumans]

I really like your channel. These old-time-gadgets are pure gold! *thumbsup*

[@strassekrieger]

I love your outro. I always sit through the whole thing. The combination of the song and clips in the background makes me feel nostalgic for old tech. Great video as always

[@openhw6445]

I started watching your channel since 808 keychain cameras. Since then you kept simple but meaningful and enjoyable, well done! Thumbs up from me, again!

[@Conenion]

key takeaway: "Predicting the future is a tricky business" .. you nailed it, man! :-)

[@BertGrink]

Conenion Your comment reminded me of the great, late danish humorist, Robert Storm Petersen, colloquially known as Storm P, who once said "It is difficult to make presictions, especially about the future." Greetings from Denmark :D

[@Conenion]

presictions => predictions Yeah, I know that quote. It's brilliant. Didn't know from whom it was. Greetings from Germany. Cheers

[@superbird6176]

I binge watched nearly all of your videos! My favourite is the RCA CED videodisc. A vinyl with moving pictures, you say..? Smashing! :)

[@Perktube1]

Super Cat I had one as a teen that I got from Radio Shack.

[@DanChasingTheGlobe]

It's a great channel to binge watch :) ✅📺

[@Redline748]

I imagine a lot of people loved the videodisc feature, I had never heard of it and was totally mesmerised by video on vinyl lol

[@AureliusR]

@@DanChasingTheGlobe If you like Techmoan, you should check out databits -- it's where a lot of the ideas seem to come from, though techmoan vehemently denies this.

[@stargazer1359]

Your channel is so unique...No one has anything even remotely close....Love it!

[@erniesdeck7550]

I'm always looking forward to your videos. No matter what the topic, "device". I find them highly entertaining. Thank you for making such fun videos!

[@GiddeonFox]

Anyone else notice that the previously perfect PlayTape player grille now has a conspicuous dent in it, like every shiny speaker grille gets from mysterious dent fairies?

[@Whitepaw_42]

My phone has a dent in the speaker grill (or grille, I'm not sure what the spelling is).

[@badnewswade]

They also remind me of the props in The Prisoner - I can just see Patrick McGoohan growling into one!

[@majorskies7091]

Can't believe this was recommend because of corona in the title xp

[@Random_4400]

Me too lol

[@docJones_AF]

Your videos are so well made! Just wanted to tell you, how impressed I am. So professional!

[@guyfawkes9951]

Man, I love that design aesthetic from the '60s and '70s! Even useless equipment like this just looked awesome.

[@normcessler6895]

The design is awesome 😍

[@samki_foto]

This is why we need Techmoan in KZbin.

[@mr1jon1smith]

"the cost.. will cost you..."😀 Youre attention to detail is so impressive I couldn't believe that slipped out :) Anyway I love your videos! Keep up the good work! Cheers from Romania!

[@scooterboi8761]

I had a Playtape back in 1968, but somehow never heard of Mail Call...thanks so much for posting this!

[@nunocspinto]

The best way to wake up ❤️ thanks, Techmoan, that was a very nice video

[@MagnaRyuuDesigns]

i gotta say that your channel is one of my favorites. seeing all this retro tech, gets my imagination going for designs of retro tech props. Like with this one I could see customizing the case and making a Retro Sci-Fi device

[@evang2881]

Suitable name for 2020!

[@jonk5621]

This intro has me the most intrigued that I've been in a while! Also wooohoooo double upload!! Fantastic!

[@osebu]

I'd love to use one of these, even today. Great review! Keep it up Techmoan, I love your videos

[@catoblepag]

Same here... as soon as I've seen these devices, I had flashbacks of 2001: a Space Odissey - and then you mentioned it, it's almost spooky (but I see many others tought the same). ;) Great video as always, thanks!

[@jonathanwood1990]

I have been watching for videos for years and I just realized that I wasn’t subscribed! I am now ❤️

[@notsorandumusername]

+Techmoan I would LOVE if you could do a video on the fascinating *Sound-In-Syncs system* devised by the geniusses at the BBC R&D department. That was a system where analog studio radiosound would be digitized, then converted to a regular black-and-white analog television signal which was then send to an FM transmitter, where the digital "disguised-as-analog" signal would be converted back to analog FM sound. This made it possible to avoid the quality-loss of picking up regular FM transmissions and then re-broadcasting them onto another transmitter where each signal overtake would lead to more and more quality loss. Now, the staggering thing about this: the BBC had this pre-DAB digital radio system running... in *1970*! They made their first digital tape recorder and A/D convertors in 1967 and this technology and knowledge also led to the NICAM digital stereo system. There is a lot of information about this on the wonderful BBCeng.info website and BBC R&D has also a lot of their original technical papers available for download. I think those first DAC's from the sixties alone would be worthy of a video, if they still excist today (I know Philips and Denon made them in those days too). Sound-in-Syncs was at the basis of digital broadcasting, formed the basis for NICAM, DAB and MP3 and given the fact that the first digital recording for CD also used ones and zeroes recording as black and white on regular videotape with the aid of a PCM processor it also had a major influence on the CD format! To me it's right up there with color televison, stereo sound, widescreen, high definition and HDR.

[@Wonderful_Productions]

Yet another excellent video you have made Techmoan!

[@Lumibear.]

There is so much overly pushy advert heavy money driven stolen clickbait on KZbin, and this channel is none of the above, and I thank you so much for that.

[@ebikebatteryrepair]

this guy really loves his details on his videos , he know so much about the items even the sales man back in the day dont know this much info :)

[@Avantime]

A similar thing is still seen today - mailing USB drives for people with poor internet, for some "linux ISOs" ;-)

[@thegardenofeatin5965]

Fed-Ex still has more bandwidth than the internet.

[@megavoltservicesllc3515]

To paraphase a old saying . never underestimate the bandwidth of a ISO shipping container full of 10TB HDDs on a train ;)

[@JohnCena-iw2vk]

man, i just go to my know dude with fast internet for that.

[@EngineeringVignettes]

Its quite common in Cuba and other countries with little to no internet. It's usually hand couriered... - Richard

[@jusb1066]

hardly worth it with modern broadband speeds though ,but sure going back to dial up, a cd of goodies was a weeks worth of downloads

[@HockeyVictory66]

Another awesome find. You never cease to amaze me. I look forward to your videos more than anyone else on KZbin. Plus you ride a NC700x DCT, which is what I ride here in California.

[@Firefoxfifty]

I love the advert. Baring this was in 1967 it look's like she was probably talking to some poor kid out in Vietnam or 'son in service' as the ad says.

[@chrisb6003]

It never ceases to amaze me where you find these things! Great to see and it would make a fantastic TV programme.

[@setoravenclaw]

Great video as always, I kept a smile on my face because of the 2001 anecdote and YES, it totally looks like a prop from that movie.

[@JohnVance]

Another great video. You're pretty much my favorite channel on KZbin. I love how in-depth your research is.

[@neilfraser1235]

As always, I love your videos, sense of humor, and interesting vintage gadgets!

[@armron94]

I have a Smith Corona typewriter a couple of them.

[@TheMaster4534]

Has the word "Corona" in the title but its a miracle KZbin didnt put a COVID-19 tag..... Meanwhile, some unrelated news videos talking about a Filipino chief magistrate who got impeached got the COVID-19 tag.... all because his surname was Corona.

[@ponchozworld]

What a coincidence, my dad was born on September 21st, 1967. Love your videos, stay awesome.

[@arielrivera4051]

I absolutely love your videos. They are top quality.

[@andycristea]

Awesome as usual! Thanks, Techmoan!

[@drueckglueck9918]

Typical techmoan making a video with Corona in the title before we knew it was a virus.

[@hexandcube]

Corona means crown in many European languages

[@lanatrzczka]

Not all of the letter packs would have the stop-beep feature. They would just go round and and you could make sound-collage things by just randomly recording bits over other bits till you had your own Revolution #9 sort of thing. We had a blast with Mail Call in the early 80s when my uncle gave us his from his business.

[@MikeG-fo1lb]

Informative , funny and professional as always Techmoan

[@Morganstein-Railroad]

Audio was out of sync with the picture on this video, Mat. Otherwise my first thought was that I used to to what we called Tapesponds on cassette, with Talking and music on them Between my friend Paul and Myself. We kept this going for about Fifteen years, with maybe two tapes each per month. This was quite ridiculous really, because we only lived about a quarter of a mile apart, and we used tyo hand the tapes to each other personally, but it was fun and we must have enjoyed it enough to keep it going for Fifteen years didn't we? Mad, eh?

[@scottcol23]

WOW I love the look of that device! It looks straight out of the brady bunch or I dream of Genie!

[@countzero5214]

Wow! This is a really beautiful object! I agree with your comments about 2001 - A Space Odyssey, but the first thing that popped into my head was that it looked like a prop from Space:1999 :)

[@73twall]

I think I've said this before, but you just get the neatest stuff. Love your videos.

[@WaybackTECH]

60's space age sci fi looking device for sure. Kind of a neat idea. I could see this being useful as a dictation device or for taking voice memo's on the go.

[@TimothySielbeck]

I remember my mom making a reel-to-reel tape to send to my grandmother when we lived in Japan in the early '60s.

[@wolfrobots118]

Your content is fantastic! I love your videos!

[@muckypup-riot]

Love your videos!! Totally reminds me of 2001. Love that KZbin follower counter, i even saw it turn over a few times during the video. :)

[@CheezyDee]

I think the REAL reason it failed is the cartridges were too heavy to be carried by carrier pigeon.

[@alphacentaurian]

But, you could have tied it between two swallows.

[@AttilaTheHun333333]

Two videos in a row...what a treat!

[@flyingninja1234]

This is an interesting device. I had no idea this existed. Smith Corona is probably most well known for their Typewriters.

[@rickyleeufc]

Techmoan your spoiling us today.. 2 vids Great stuff as always 👍

[@andrewcassidy1790]

I would not be surprised at all if this WAS a prop somewhere in the background of 2001. I'll have to keep an eye out next time I watch it

[@PeterEdin]

Smith Corona, now there's a name I haven't heard for ages. I had a Smith Corona electric typewriter once and if memory serves, it could also be used as a text only printer on a BBC B computer.

[@CriticalEatsJapan]

Yeah, looks totally like a 1960's sci-fi gadget

[@aarron1234567]

this is a grate channel i all ways learn something thanks for over 2 years of good stuff cheers to u mate

[@briandecker8403]

Excellent topic! Thanks for continuing to focus on "lost tech"!

[@yanuehara8017]

Reading that title in 2020 really is weird.

[@JoshuaGensheimer]

Yan Uehara I know. I had the same thought.

[@stormgirl09]

I learned about so much tech I didn't even know existed on this channel!! Makes me wonder if we have an super obscure tech even now that many don't use or even know about!!

[@Sku11Leader]

When my grandparents were stationed overseas in England and Germany in the 50s and 60s, my grandmother would send audio recordings back to her parents on reels.

[@exidy-yt]

You find the coolest shit out there, Techmoan. And absolutely dead on with the 2001 A Space Oddysey commentary, I thought the exact same thing the second I saw it, this should have been clipped to Dave Bowman's belt on his space-suit, or the white one used to communicate section to section on the Space Station. ;-) Considering the time that this system must have spent in development I guess that the shade used was coincidental, unless that type of orange bakelite was commonly used then. As it's the same shade as the rug and the hanging lamp-shade in the home I grew up in the 1970s in, I am thinking it just might have been.

[@weirdotzero7065]

I wish there was more through-back 60s designs. I would love to own a desktop computer designed like this.

[@magreger]

Great video as always. Loved the wig!

[@Vulpovile]

Did the video get corrupted? The sound and video slowly completely desynchronize from each other

[@erikhansen4346]

Looks like a prop from the original Star Trek

[@watershed44]

Erik Hansen Indeed it does a bit like a tricorder device.

[@purrbox7514]

Have to be fair, I only clicked on it because I thought it was a Star Trek communicator.

[@martybuchanan9553]

I just Shatnered myself

[@user2C47]

@@watershed44 This does not look like a Star Trek tricorder, although it wouldn't look out of place if it was part of a control panel.

[@watershed44]

@Alex Jamieson Actually they had some other tools that did look a bit like this one here, but true it doesn't look too similar to the tricorder.

[@matejajezdic]

The only phone that spreads the coronavirus

[@fellipec]

I'm almost bursting myself laughing of the scene at 5:20! Well done, well done!

[@TheFreightBeast]

Imagine this going viral

[@oliviawaters1]

Great video once again! Keep up the fantastic work!

[@MrXavierRose]

Love your acting, old chap. The wig and the acting, great!

[@AnOfficialAndrewFloyd]

My father had one of those Mail Call devices. Unfortunately, us kids may have played with and destroyed them. I haven't seen them again since, but your video brought back memories about the device's loud beep in the morning while recording on it.

[@OnboardCamEurope]

I love this retro stuff, I already bought a old flip clock, it's so beautiful!

[@ricoindraekapurnama9979]

I'm always interested in every review of technology in the past..Good job bro!

[@jcardboard]

What a beautiful design wasted on such a ridiculous gadget. Great video.

[@ZylonFPV]

Your new LG screen is looking pretty swag. Loving the way you’ve mounted it so cleanly

[@nevet1212]

As always, thanks for making!

[@bryede]

People used to record messages on blank phonograph disks. A friend of mine had a huge stack of them which contained conversations between his father and grandfather. I converted them all to MP3 for him and it was quite a labor intensive process because of the condition they were in. I still come across used recoding disks at antique stores and flea markets.

[@jblack8149]

bryede It would be so cool to find one with a conversation.

[@bryanotero123]

bryede Could you upload it???

[@Jerbod2]

I love these obscure pieces of technology. Great stuff Mat!