The Alibiphon A Magnetic Recording Answering Machine

The alibiphone!
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[@jeffseven2194]

Tubes AND a weird magnetic tape platter, i love it.

[@karlramberg]

Electro-Mechanical gadgets are so satisfying to look at.

[@KeritechElectronics]

It's even more satisfying to hear them work! All the clicking, yay.

[@GizzyDillespee]

You could have a half hour video that's entirely like the end of this one - just all the various machines in the museum slowly waking up, and then after halfway thru the video, going back to sleep again - engaging and disengaging, wheels coming up to speed, a tape loop unfurling around its oxbows, a relay clicking, a control arm sliding into place, meter needles springing to life, and so on, captured from those intimate angles, and with the all sounds they make too, of course. Lights flickering on, tuning into radio stations, all of it! That would be the best video ever. Well, one of the good videos, at least. It would be quite an ongoing project to make, including sorting thru old footage. It could make quite an advertisement for the museum, eventually. I'm actually kinda surprised a film student/hobbyist, who lives within range of the museum, hasn't already asked to do something like that. No, I live in the USA, and don't have any video equipment for close-up shots anyway.

[@robot797]

I am so glad it arived save

[@McTroyd]

I love the idea of an answering machine that doesn't let people leave messages. At least I'd have an excuse not to check them. 😁👍️

[@highpath4776]

The we cannot record messages message I think comes from leaving a message saying we cannot leave message - needs clarifing

[@organfairy]

In Denmark in the 1950's and 60's you could rent a similar device from the phone company - only their equipment was allowed to be connected to the phone grid. However, it had an output and a power socket for connecting your own tape recorder if you wanted to record messages from the caller.

[@DIY-valvular]

Another recording system that Techmoan missed! ;-)) Talking about Mat, but without joking, some years ago he made some episodes about the Tefifon format from the same era of the Alibiphon. It was a vinil tape record player with needle and grooves instead of magnetic material. I think that this make an amazing contrast with this Willy Muller's magnetic disc. Engineers of that time where tinking out of the box.

[@anesthetized7053]

man there was something very soothing about the recording he made for you. the combination of lo fi audio with a cheerful european dude was really nice

[@robot797]

thanks I had to record it like 5 or 10 times because I didnt know what to day

[@dykodesigns]

It looks like an old 5.25" formfactor MFM harddrive but with only one platter in it. Judging by the brown colour I would say the disc uses plain ferro oxide as it's magnetic coating just like type 1 Cassette tapes.

[@Tassie-Devil]

The verbal "beep" is a nice touch! :D

[@robot797]

I didnt know what else to do and its funny that nobody has guessed how I made the sound higher

[@Tassie-Devil]

@@robot797 LOL 🤣

[@robot797]

@@Tassie-Devil I hold the motor so it turned slower

[@peter.stimpel]

and I thought those callbutlers I had in the beginning of the 90s were strange. Nice piece of tech you got.

[@chloedevereaux1801]

that's boris johnsons answer machine, the alibi phone lolololol

[@KeritechElectronics]

He'll always find one, won't he? "I was on a Brexit trip overseas!"

[@Elektronijaenis]

That disc reminds me of an old full size 5 1/4 inch (basically the size of two CD/DVD drives on a desktop) hard drive that I once took apart. The discs were a bit more shiny, but the colour was similar.

[@volvogamer]

The ingenuity of these things is just astounding. I noticed when it rings that the tape platter moves a little. Is this somehow counting the rings until it picks up and answers ??

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

No I think that’s part of the machine to reduce electronics. The first part of the motion of the tone arm is not autonomous. To allow some pulses to ring before it plays. Then it gets to a certain point and hits a switch that makes it play autonomously

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

Really funky the cams though. Seems 1 is for start. 2 is for begin message and just keep playing 3 is stop and a fourth emmm… no idea 🤷‍♀️

[@volvogamer]

@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER Thankyou for clarifying now it makes sense 😃

[@eDoc2020]

@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER You're nerd sniping me so now I _need_ to look at the schematics. Cam 1 turns on the circuitry and probably also takes the line off hook, cleverly using the relay coil as a filter choke. Cam 2 seems like it may be to return to beginning, cam 3 keeps it running until the end of the message and the fourth appears to turn on the lightbulb partway through the process, presumably when the pickup is over a usable part of the disc. In reality it looks like the only light bulb is constantly on so I presume that switch is stuck.

[@Colin_Ames]

Yet another weird and interesting piece of telephone equipment. Love it!

[@mousaey]

"This answering machine does not take messages, so please enjoy this hold music and maybe someone will walk by the phone and pick up."

[@robot797]

that would be such a better message I just did something because I could not think of anything

[@KeritechElectronics]

Cool piece! It's German, but judging from the phone plug, it was used in the Netherlands.

[@robot797]

It came from a doctor office in Belgium to me in the netherlands

[@zetaconvex1987]

"Beep"

[@robot797]

BEEEP!!

[@molekulaTV]

Another cool time machine LOL

[@godfreypoon5148]

It's like a PHONE-o-graph.

[@robot797]

true that XD

[@Elektronenregen]

I like the name of the machine :). Very interesting how it's built.

[@gpo746]

Read ALIBI - Phone , "Hello, I am home and not committing a robbery ...I promise"

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

Haha yeah it did cross my mind why the heck it was called that ha

[@ulrichkalber9039]

@@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER simple: ALIBI from latin "alius ibi" "another place" in the sense you have been in another place. the answering machine allows you to be exactly that: in another place. and still be reachable.

[@LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

@@ulrichkalber9039 aaah yeah i see. words aint my strong pooint. cooolk!

[@volvogamer]

That would be the East German variant

[@GizzyDillespee]

Ah, I've been looking for a device that allows me to be somewhere else.

[@reggiep75]

Is that Hainbach I can hear salivating over the deeply saturated, static playback!? 😉

[@idj20]

A cool piece of vintage kit. Just a quick "noob" type question, as the UK's telephone system go fully digital with analogue signals being made obsolete (no pun intended) in the next couple of years, will that affect everything in your museum? Just wondering as I'm still using cabled/wired landline phones around my house (can hear better on them due to my deafness).

[@roseroserose588]

Since everything in the museum is hidden behind a "real" phone line, and the internals are equivalent to e.g. an office building exchange, I think he should be okay. May need some sort of translation device between the two sides to make things match up but that sort of thing already exists for converting between VoIP networks and "real" phones and will likely be in quite high demand after the switchover (:

[@UberAlphaSirus]

Deffo a harddrive. About one minutes worth of recording and say at 500hz on the safe side , should be about a 3.5Kb hard drive. Reminds me of when my 486 modem used to be the answer machine. The message whent something like, There is nobody here right now, just me and the fridge humming away. Leave a message and I will tell the master when he returns. Dragon voice was my alexa/siri/oi google back then in the 90's

[@KeritechElectronics]

Analog HDD indeed!

[@highpath4776]

Yes the OGM is great with that voice.

[@robot797]

what is OGM?

[@highpath4776]

@@robot797 OutGoing Message. (press OGM on a TAM or similar and you record what your caller will hear)

[@robot797]

@@highpath4776 oh thanks Beep btw

[@highpath4776]

@@robot797 Beeeep

[@curtishoffmann6956]

Ok, so we have an automatic answering machine that says "leave a message after the beep." What part of the machine is used for recording incoming messages?

[@highpath4776]

looks like the OGM is on the inner track, then moves over to the outer track to record message/s

[@robot797]

It can't record That was my joke

[@curtishoffmann6956]

@@robot797 Busted...

[@robot797]

@@curtishoffmann6956 LOL

[@Moondream417]

beep

[@robot797]

BEEP

[@dorianhinkle5595]

Beeeeeeeep

[@robot797]

BEEEEEP

[@magicknight8412]

Beeeep

[@robot797]

BEEP!!!

[@chloedevereaux1801]

your mics booming terribly.......

[@SXTransmission]

Yes have you changed your mic, dear Mr Sam? Subsonicing my ears!

[@chrisbullock613]

It's popping, it's just too close to his mouth

[@CausticCatastrophe]

beep

[@robot797]

BEEEEEP

[@sebbothebushnerd]

Beeeep

[@robot797]

BEEEP