Dave Plowman (News) wrote:

I remember a cheap tape deck in the '50s that had no capstan - so the tape
speed varied with the amount on the reels. Disaster if you broke the tape
and had to junk some.

There were literally dozens like that in the 50s and particularly the
60s. They are known as "rim-drive" decks. They all had horrendous sound
quality; it's not a mechanism suited to the purpose!

They were novelty toys, really. I think they all came from Japan, from
just a very small handful of factories who sold them under a vast array
of more or less plausible western-sounding brand names.

As well as being cheap, they could be made very small.

Daniele
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