Telephone Answering Machine

This PhoneMate model 6950 illustrates answering machine technology in the midst of radical change. From the earliest designs in the 1900s, answering machines used magnetic recording technology, recording on either wire or coated tape. Most machines of the 1960s and 1970s used two tapes, one for the outgoing message and one to record the incoming message. Advances in digital memory design during the 1980s led the model 6950's designers to eliminate the outgoing message tape by using digital memory instead. The incoming message was still recorded on a standard tape cassette. The suggested retail price was $179.98.

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