in this video I'm going to take a look
at this piece of vintage technology
called a triple quarter now the
suggestion for this video came from a
viewer who'd seen this for sale on eBay
and thought it was right at my street
and he was right so I imported one from
the US now the triple cord it was made
by coming called answer manufacturer in
Japan the model numbers you see there is
ATR 102 and it's a radio a phonograph
and a tape recorder all-in-one now I got
this in a box with some packing material
included in which was this bag now I've
had some strange things in packing
material before including socks for
example so I thought well maybe
someone's just shoved a hand bag in
there to pad it out a bit but no this is
part of the kit this is the carrying
case for the triple quarter in here
we've got the instruction booklet and
also the toe down for the phonograph and
then in the other side we've got the
platter for the phonograph and also down
in the bottom of there is a 45 rpm adapt
to it shot discovered was in there later
on anyway let's go back to the box and
get the triple quarter out it's been in
here since sometimes I think in the
1960s but we'll go into that in a bit
more detail later on we've got the
batteries in here which are three D
cells branded novell but below that it
says it's part of fuji electrochemical
coal imited there leak-proof and it
looks like they've lived up to that
claim because they haven't leaked all
over the box although they'll be no use
now putting the triple quarter to one
side there are other things inside the
case an aerial that's for the AM radio
we've got a microphone because as well
as a tape player it's a take the corner
and a photograph and a radio and we've
also got the earpiece it's a very
unusual little device the design as well
as the features that it packs it in such
a small space and those features are an
open real mono
tape recorder and 45rpm 7-inch record
player it place those in mono as well
and an AM radio the design is certainly
different I've never seen a possible
reel-to-reel tape recorder in a round
metal Kate's in tight box and the lid is
held down by this catch on this side and
at the back and opening it up feels a
little bit like opening a novelty
lunchbox
now just because no one's been in here
it doesn't guarantee that this thing is
going to work of course it's sat around
for a very long time so perhaps we could
have belts in here that have perished
capacitors of leaks all over the circuit
board if the is even a circuit board so
there's a lot of things that can go
wrong I just hope it works enough so
that I could demonstrate it to you but
it isn't the kind of thing that I'd plan
on using on a regular basis after all
it's just a mono 45rpm record player a
mono tape recorder and an AM radio all
things that I've got other versions of
that would work better than this anyway
there's the tuning control for the radio
I've got a speaker on the left which
will go through that grille in the top
lid if you want to operate it with the
lid closed and if you do close that lid
you can still get to those buttons along
the bottom because there's a cutout in
the lid which lets you just reach inside
there on the right we've got a recording
level indicator notice there's a few
inputs there now it puts a got earphone
microphone on the left there's a bit of
a mystery switch there which I'll figure
out later on a volume control buttons
along the bottom of course for the
transport controls notice is no
fast-forward on there if we look at the
side of it we've got the handle of
course for carrying it as well as
another microphone sake there if you
don't fancy using the bomb on the top if
you've got the lid closed for example
and then on the right-hand side here
that's where the aerial goes in to make
the radio work so let's put that in
there first of all that should be the
easiest thing to test out and it fits in
there a bit like a key you put it in an
angle and then twist it around and
there's a spring-loaded mechanism which
pushes it back out and locks it in place
let's flip this over and we'll put some
batteries in here now when you've played
around with a lot of old tech from say
the 50s 60s and 70s you start to get a
feel of what fits in what decade and
this one just seems a little bit weird
for something from the 1960s I'd expect
it to have quite a bit more plastic in
ear than this this all-metal
construction is just a little bit
unusual perhaps this answer company was
an off-brand maybe they didn't have
access to plastic the same way that some
other companies did but anyway let's put
the 3d cells in here now as you can see
they go in those clamps that are on the
hinged door and they don't feel very
firmly clamped
in there of course decels do have have
been a way to the but imagine that just
fall into there if I tipped it upside
down so I'll tip it from the side and
hopefully will be okay I think once it's
closed up it'll be fine right let's open
it up again and see if we can get this
radio going and that will show us
whether there's any life in this machine
that's all I thought that switch might
turn it on or the volume control but no
it's rather more obvious and that press
play and the radio plays now I won't be
able to get any decent reception in here
I never can in this room due to the
amount of electrical interference from
things like Wi-Fi
however it's great to know that there is
life in this machine and I've noticed
that if you remove the aerial and then
press play then the tape mechanism
operates it's the insertion of the
aerial into the side which tells it that
you want to use the radio so because of
its unconventional way of operating I've
decided to have a good look through the
manual on this one so I don't miss
anything for example if you want to play
a tape you put the tape on the right
unreal and it plays across to the left
hand wall which is back to front from
what I'm used to with other machines you
can record off the record player and you
can record off the radio with this as
well and you can also mix your
recordings that's what the switch on the
left is for if you plug a microphone
into it you can record the radio and
your voice at the same time onto the
tape and notice it says here that the
radio is for BC band only now that is a
terminology I was unfamiliar with until
I've looked it up and apparently BC
stood for broadcast
it's the frequencies we more commonly
refer to nowadays ours AM or medium wave
but up to some point in the 1960s you
could also have called them BC so now
that I've read those instructions I've
got a much better grasp as to how this
thing is supposed to work and I know
though that I don't need to flip that
switch on the left-hand side unless I
plan on recording my karaoke session
where I'm singing along to a record now
I've noticed they've got this addendum
which indicates that perhaps they had a
bit of an issue with this machine it
tells you to keep that left-hand spool
clean on the outside because it's a
friction drive mechanism and of course
if that got greasy that it wouldn't work
properly but perhaps they had a bit of a
problem with that it does indicate that
maybe that was a weak area let's just
have a look inside here now the way this
works the smaller rubber wheel at the
top right that is on a drive shaft which
goes down into the motor below the
larger rubber wheel pushes up against
that drive shaft and also against the
reel on the left-hand side and that's
how it's driven around through friction
but notice is a problem on that larger
rubber wheel there's a mark on this side
that's an indentation and that has been
caused because this thing has been sat
in its box for over 50 years during
which time that has been resting up
against that drive shaft and it's pushed
a dent into it and that could cause us a
bit of a problem later on we'll find out
in a moment I'm going to put some tape
into this I'm going to clean off these
tape heads first of always some
isopropyl alcohol and notice how the
tape gets pushed between the tape head
and that little bit of felt on the
bottom there just to keep it against the
head I'll put the cover back on here and
I'll thread this tape across it goes
from the right unreal between this
spring-loaded cover against those tape
heads and onto the reel on the left-hand
side okay so the threading job isn't the
Tydeus but it's just to test it out and
quick tap to the side it is working but
it's making a bit of a noise every time
that indentation hits against that drive
shaft but we'll give it a go we'll plug
a microphone in here we've got a choice
of two different mic sockets use one on
the top if the covers open the one on
the side if the covers closed but they
do the same function and to get it to
record you just press record so let's
try it out hello hello just testing yeah
good right so what we've got here you
can see there in the recording level
indicator that's my voice moving the
needle there so with any luck we are
actually recording something let's
rewind and have a listen
okay clearly a lot of problems there but
it is working to a degree so you can t
get the idea let's try playing a 45 rpm
record on this so to do that there's a
couple of different ways you can do it
you put this platter on now if you want
you can remove the tape from the machine
if you were just playing a record and
put it into the top of the spindle
however if you want to record a record
at the same time you're playing it you
leave the tape in place now the tonearm
you can see here it's got a little mini
jack on one end and that's how it's
attached to the machine and then the
other end well of course we got to
remove this cover that protects it while
it's in transit and it's just a very
simple matter of plugging it into that
socket there there's nothing more
complicated than that so once that's in
place I'm looking around the room trying
to find a 45 rpm seven-inch record I've
only got a few test ones somewhere I
can't remember where I've put them so
I'm just got this one out of its frame
on the wall I'm gonna put this one in
the top hopefully I won't damage this
but you know we'll find out although I
don't think I need to worry about
copyright if I do find those other
records because I doubt that YouTube
will be able to identify what this
machine was playing yes oh that's no use
at all it turns out the machine is
severely lacking in power in torque the
ability to spin that wheel around and
perhaps it's to do with that rubber
wheel in the middle I also think it
could be something to do with the motor
but I'm going to take both these rubber
wheels out to see if there's anything I
can do here to make it run a little bit
better the small one has to come out
first and then you can remove this split
pin off the larger one and then being
careful not to lose that as well I can
now remove the larger of the two wheels
and we'll see if there's anything we can
do just to smooth out this dint a little
bit now if this was a common machine you
just go and get a replacement one of
these but if you couldn't do that you
might want to get the rubber redone
there are people who do that however I'm
gonna try something a little bit simpler
here I'm gonna put it into a cup of hot
water where I'll get some of the hot
water in the cup anyway you can see why
I'm not a barista but while that's
sitting in there hopefully softening up
maybe getting it shaped back I just want
to do something else since we've got
outside let's try that radio without all
the Wi-Fi interference I was suffering
from before just to see if it does still
work as it was supposed to
[Music]
yeah so that works fine no the hot water
thing yes I could have done that in the
house however the lighting in the
kitchens a bit hopeless that's why I did
it outside now throughout the day I keep
replacing the hot water in that cup
every half an hour or so so whilst
that's going on let's just have a look
at the rest of this because I've got a
feeling that maybe it needs a bit of
lubrication here after all it's been sat
around for a very long time any oil and
things that were in there will have
hardened up so it's just a matter of me
just going through fighting all the
moving parts that should move freely and
just putting a bit of oil on those let's
just take the top off this as well and
have a look inside it properly just to
see if there's anything else in here
that I can do to hopefully make it
function a bit smoother so I had a good
dig around inside here and made sure all
the mechanical parts of it were
functioning as best as I could make them
of course the electronics now it's going
to be another issue I'm quite sure quite
a few of those capacitors are well past
their sell-by date and this thing would
benefit from a few of those being
replaced it would no doubt increase the
volume for one thing I noticed it was a
little bit quiet but really I just want
to try this thing out and get it up and
running it doesn't have to be perfect
now let's go back to that rubber roller
and see if the hot water has improved
it's all and looking at this I don't
think it has it doesn't seem to have
made any difference whatsoever now I did
keep replacing that hot water for
another couple of hours but it really
didn't change anything so I think I'm
gonna have to give the hot water up as a
bad job and try a different approach and
use some rubber roller restorer now this
stuff is supposed to provide a bit more
tackiness to old rubbers
it hardens up and therefore slips on
things use some of this stuff and it
just takes a surface off a little bit
and brings it down to a level where the
rubber has a bit more grip you've got to
be careful of course not sir rub the
surface off too far so the rubber
doesn't have enough dimensions anymore
to touch the thing it should have done
and also of course you don't want to
leave flat edges on it but even after
messing around as best as I could with
this that didn't goes quite deep into
here and I haven't really managed to get
it to function any better than we saw
before but I'll put a record on this
again I'll just show you what it plays
like now without the tape in place I
also managed to find that 45 rpm adapter
in the bottom of that nice handbag
earlier on so I've put that on this
record and we'll just have another quick
listen
yes I think we can call that fix it
unmitigated failure but before we pack
it all away let's just try recording off
a record before giving it up as a bad
job I thought I'd just try a couple more
things to see if they'll improve it at
all this one with the elastic band
didn't it created too much grip and that
meant it wouldn't spin at all but then
that made me realize what one of the
other problems was and I set about
fixing that and it did improve things
[Music]
now despite it not working perfectly
I've got to say I'm happy with what I've
been able to do because at the end I
could demonstrate all the various
features of this machine even if it was
working perfectly though it definitely
wouldn't be the best device of
performing any of these functions now I
just want to cover a few of the
idiosyncrasies of this machine as an
open reel tape recorder of the ear of
portable devices like this would
commonly use a tape like this this is a
three inch tape there are a number of
different portable open reel recorders
that would use a tape of this size as
well as three-inch there are a number of
different sizes three five seven ten and
a half being the most common ones the
tapes on this machine well if you
measure it in inches it doesn't quite
fit it sort of three and a bit and the
reason for that is because it's a
Japanese one so it's going to use the
metric system and if we have a look at
the other side of the tape we find out
that this reel is 85 millimeters across
and I should have spotted that early
because it's actually written on the
reel itself but that's not the only
unusual thing about it the spools have a
small cutout hole on either side and
this is what keeps it in position on the
platter there's a similarly raised
section on there which locates in that
hole and keeps the reel in position
there on a normal reel-to-reel machine
the reels the center of the spindle has
a 3-point star and the reel just goes
over there and gets held in position
that way so if you put a normal real on
this it just spins freely you can't use
it on this machine add the main thing of
course is that the tape runs in the
opposite direction on a normal machine
it goes from the left wheel to the right
one on this it goes in the other
direction so if you do record something
on this particular machine the only
place you're going to be able to play it
back again is off this machine which is
such a strange way to do things after
all the standards for reel-to-reel tape
recorders have effectively been agreed
upon for years before this thing hit the
market now as well as it's unusual
operation this thing does have the
slightly unusual construction as well as
the round shape this this heavy reliance
on metal it does have a few bits of
plastic here and air on the feet and on
the plastic window on the top and of
course the buttons
but just the amount of metal on this
makes me feel that it isn't really a
late 60s device I date this one about 60
or 61 if I have put a particular date on
it but even then it's a little bit
unusual so I was trying to figure out
when exactly this thing was made so I
went online and tried to do some
research now if you look into this
you'll find the ATR 102 quite easily
because quite a few people have got hold
of one of these it seems like at some
point someone's found a container full
of these things and they've been
offloading them on ebay over a period of
years so collectors of unusual
technology people like me have picked
these up and generally people have said
it's from the mid 1960s some people have
narrowed that down to 1965 I'm not quite
convinced by that it just seems a little
bit strange so I started doing more
research looking into the books on
Google now I did manage to find it in
this document here from 1967
unfortunates one of those ones that you
can't read the whole thing you can just
see a little snip arrow but you can see
just about to the top there the ATR 102
at least mentioned next to a pretty
phonograph now this document was from
1967 and it appears that perhaps that's
when it came out according to this
document or maybe this is a later
document return to the item coming out a
few years earlier still not too sure of
the exact date now the other device
mentioned there the pretty phonograph
well there's a chap on YouTube who's got
one of those made by the same company as
you can see answer that's got a more
conventional plastic construction it's a
small record player so this answer
calmly definitely seems to have been on
the scene during the mid to late 1960s
although this particular device just
doesn't look like something from that
period if it had been out then it should
really have had a lot more plastic on it
than this design does in fact let's just
compare it against some of its
contemporaries in 1965 billboard did a
roundup of the various tape recorders
that are available at the time and they
included various models for the home but
they also had a section on the battery
recorders so remember this is 1965
approximately the same time my machine
came to market and things looked a lot
different here's a example I've got a
very similar model to this one and here
it is and this is like night and day
compared to their answer machine
all plastic construction using those
standard three-inch reels and you've got
to bear in mind before this came to
market in the early 60s Phillips had
already launched their compact cassette
so these kind of things we're sort of
going out a little bit by the time this
came out and this is towards the latter
part of the 60s but yeah
all plastic nothing like that all-metal
body of the answer now we're not had it
open earlier on out looked around the in
size trying to find a date stamped
somewhere sometimes are on the side of
the motor if this thing had had chips in
it they would've been on there as well
but there was nothing like that the only
thing in there was a made in Japan
sticker but I do have one thing that I
can go off this design patent number
this will tell me when the design patent
was applied for and granted so type that
number in to the Japanese website and
there is you can see that this is the
same device just do a close up there
yeah that's definitely the answer a TR
102 okay so a quick check at the top of
the document should reveal the dates and
it shows that this design patent was
issued on the 30th of July 39 okay that
must be a typo we'll have a look over on
the other dates it shows that it was
registered on the 17th of April
39 okay and it was applied for on the
15th of July 37 Russ is getting worse so
what's going on here then right so could
it have been possible for a design for a
portable tape recorder to have been
drawn up in 1937 well he can find plenty
of examples of products being imagined
many years before they came to market
for example the flat screen televisions
in things to come Star Trek's
communicators and mm and ones tablets
there are videos of arthur c clarke from
the 1960s giving a pretty accurate
description of the future of personal
computing and the world wide web but
could someone have predicted a portable
tape recorder in 1937 well in theory yes
because tape recorders existed before
then this is the Marconi tape recorder
at the BBC in 1932 now this recorded
onto flat steel tape that was wound up
in a spool much like the tape you get on
a tape measure for example now it ran
its
sixty inches per second and no one could
be in the same room as this thing
because if that tape flew off it chopped
your arm off however just three years
later 1935 this thing turns up on the
scene this is the first magnetic tape
recorder the records on sir plastic tape
this is the magnetic own k1 from AEG and
it made its debut at the Berlin radio
show in 1935 so in theory our Japanese
guy could have read about this and for I
bet they're able to make those smaller
in the future after all everything
eventually ends up getting smaller so
let me draw up a design of a small one
but inside a cake tin and then I've got
the design patent on it in case ever I
am able to develop that in the future
after all at this point he didn't have
to specify how it works it was just a
design okay no that would be a cool
story about this one thing that doesn't
ring true why would a company in the
1960s dig up a 30 year old design to
base their products on perhaps it might
have been a way to save money I don't
really know how the Japanese patent
system works but then again it's also
not unheard of for an old design to
resurface many years later but there's
something just not quite right about
this story how would the 1937 guy know
that the 1960s machine would need these
exact buttons and sockets Charlotte his
design would just look like a smaller
magnetic own he wouldn't know about
things like mini-jack sockets for the
mic and earpiece and the recording level
indicator okay so how about we look at
this in a different direction someone
from the 1960s travels back in time to
the 1930s and submits a design for a
portable reel-to-reel tape recorder with
the patents office so they can then go
back to the 1960s and collect royalties
off all the manufacturers of portable
tape recorders of that era who they can
now claim have copied their original
design it's that same old scam again the
time-traveling tape recorder baton I
stand that would explain the almost
perfect match between the 1930s drawing
and that 1960s machine there is however
just one more possibility and that's
that the Japanese Patent Office we're
using the Japanese date system which is
based around the reign of the Empress so
if you include the word before the date
it says Showa so the ATR 102 was
actually designed in Showa
37 which is 1962 yes I'm afraid
at least enticing over the three options
but it's the most accurate one and I
hope you didn't mind the shaggy-dog
story but it's just a way to include a
bit a tape-recorder history but that day
explains a lot because this is really an
early sixties design but by the mid
1960s it would already have looked out
of date because things move pretty
quickly in the 60s as far as tech was
concerned just think 10 years before
this came out the first portable
reel-to-reel recorders were in something
the size of a suitcase but then by 1963
Philips have brought out their compact
cassette recorder so yeah you can
understand why this product didn't sell
at the time and no doubt that's why
there's a container somewhere full of
these that someone's now knocking out on
eBay but still it isn't without its
charms it is an unusual device and I
hope you've enjoyed having a look at it
here today but that's it for the moment
as always thanks for watching
[Music]