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Telephone Answering Machine

American History Museum

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International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
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    Object Details

    maker

    American Telecommunications Corporation

    Description (Brief)

    This “AutoMatic TelePhone” unit combines an answering machine with a telephone. Like many early answering machines, the tape is not in a removable format. Twenty minutes of recording time is permitted before the tape must be erased and reset to the beginning. A more advanced model featured a remote access feature that allowed the user to use a small tone-generator to activate the machine from any telephone.

    Location

    Currently not on view

    Credit Line

    from PhoneTel Communications Inc., thru Daniel Henderson

    date made

    1980

    ID Number

    2000.0101.08

    catalog number

    2000.0101.08

    accession number

    2000.0101

    Object Name

    telephone answering machine
    recording device
    answering machine

    Physical Description

    plastic (overall material)
    metal (overall material)

    Measurements

    overall: 5 in x 11 in x 10 in; 12.7 cm x 27.90012 cm x 25.4 cm

    See more items in

    Work and Industry: Electricity
    Magnetic Recording
    Communications

    Data Source

    National Museum of American History

    Metadata Usage

    CC0

    Link to Original Record

    https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ab-d8b4-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

    Record ID

    nmah_1299450

    Discover More

    early telephone

    Telephones Through Time: Smithsonian's Historic Collection

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