The Original 1950's Protona Spy Recorder: Protona P51 Minifon

This is a wire recorder. Uses a thin wire to record covert conversations during the Cold War. Also later used in the business world as a dictation device. Here we see it in action, listen to a short segment pf a business meeting and make a few short recordings to demo its features. In the next vide we will line up the entire Protona series and compare them.

[Dan_KMDAD]

Wire recorders have peaked my interest. The fact that audio could be stored in a strip of metal the width of a human hair was amazing technology for the time. There's the obvious fidelity limitation but as the media was primarily intended for voice recording it wasn't really a factor. The steel wire although thin offers longer preservation of the audio recording as there's no oxide to break down like with magnetically-treated tape. Explains why so many of these recordings have lasted 70+ years. Great video!

[frankowalker]

Cool recorder. It sounds quite good.

The wow and flutter seems to be associated with the head movement, It might need oil or grease on the worm gear, or whatever mechanism it uses to move the head up and down.

[WKG]

Secret Agent Man..
Kent's will be ready when they want to make another spy movie with antique spy toy's..

[billymoretti]

Phil Driscoll! Excellent! Love this recorder They are quite expensive however..I would love to purchase
a complete set with the watch..(Lord willing) Billy

[erqey]

Just found a entire one of these in a dark green zipped case at my grandmothers house.

[NoelDelapena-vp]

I have a mi51 in original green case. If you need another one, let me know