Retrotech - Rols Dictation Machine - The Most Bonkers Magnetic Audio Recording Format In The World!

In this Retro Tech / Vintage Tech video we're having a look at a 1967 Rols dictation machine. The Rols was made in Hamburg, Germany by Apparatebau Stellingen. It was sold in the UK by Block & Anderson Ltd, and in parts of the USA by the GAF Corporation.

Unlike most other dictation machines, the Rols machine moves the head across the recording film rather than the more usual method of moving the recording film or tape across the head. Visually this system looks completely bonkers (but in a good way).

At the time there was a demand to be able to send dictations through the post and some of the earlier recording formats were too bulky - various manufacturers came up with different solutions to this problem - the key feature of the Rols was that you could simply cut the recording film to the required length once you'd finished your dictation and easily send it through the post or archive it.

Skip to 6:40 to see the machine working.
Skip to 13:45 to see the machine taken apart.

Intro music:
"As Yet Untitled"
by GrumpyTim (available to download from GrumpyTim's Bandcamp page)

Additional music:
"Where Was I Going"
by GrumpyTim (available to download from GrumpyTim's Bandcamp page)

[rarbiart]

thank you for showing the mechanical details in full operation for this extended time! i really appreciate it!

[andromedaturnbull]

Wonderful video! This is basically the same approach as the Ricoh/3M Sound Page technology only that the head moves in an arc rather than a circle and the recording medium is intermittently moved. Thank you so much for sharing!

[CuriousMarc]

What a pretty and unusual machine! Awesome!

[SwingBandHeaven]

I remember as a kid in the mid 1970's playing with one of these in my dad's office at work when he went in on a Sunday to do some work. Kept me nice and quiet whilst he got on and did what he needed to do. It also ignited a life long curiosity in unusual audio formats. Tefifon anybody :)

[jimearly]

My father worked for GAF and had one of these machines for dictation. I have some GAF notepads with the rounded rectangular squares down the side, like the mag tape.

[rarbiart]

i wonder why this format didn't catch on with (germany) bureaucracy. you can file the recordings! that would be considered a plus even in 2021....

[rarbiart]

judging from the inductor coils in there, they didn't cheap out on the audio part, i assume it even has propper preephasis/bias set. quite amazing.

[BensWorkshop]

That is a remarkably odd way of solving the problem. Very interesting.

[Skoda]

Damn, it's all capacitors in there.

[alexandarvoncarsteinzarovi]

I think the 1910 models were less creepy,