Lou Ottens

[02GF74]

Inventor of the compact cassette. (hopefully there are one or two oldies who know what I'm talking about)

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/11/arts/music/lou-ottens-dead.html

 

[ga_max]

I remember cassettes, I even had an 8-track.

 

[02GF74]

Interesting and useless fact that has stuck in my memory is that the thickness of c90 cassette tape is 1/10 thickness of a human hair, and the tape runs at 4.75 cm per second.

 

[Fire-medic]

C90's were not as-reliable because the magnetic tape was thinner, the C30 and C60 were better to use for taping, if you wanted it to last.

Here is a blast from the past, you're probably halfway to the long dirt nap if you had one of these. An Omnibot, being kept company by a couple other iconic items, spanning 55+ years. You learned programming to operate the Omnibot, and the code was stored on a cassette you inserted into the Omnibot to initiate movement.

1965 Lava Lamp (USA)
1984 TOMY Omnibot
2019 Baby Yoda

Ottens carried a small block of wood he decided was the perfect size for a portable tape body, it was lost when he used it to operate his automobile jack during a roadside repair, and he left it by the side of the road.

Where'd I put that pencil, I gotta rewind my tape!

 

[Radioguylogs]

We still play cassettes in our 2001 Motorhome.

...and I play 8 Tracks in the garage...until the tape breaks and I throw it away.

My dirt nap must be approaching more quickly than others.

 

[MadMaxMan]

Interesting and useless fact that has stuck in my memory is that the thickness of c90 cassette tape is 1/10 thickness of a human hair, and the tape runs at 4.75 cm per second.

Would that be .0003 thick?

 

[02GF74]

0.0003937007874015 in

 

[Fire-medic]

Interesting and useless fact that has stuck in my memory is that the thickness of c90 cassette tape is 1/10 thickness of a human hair, and the tape runs at 4.75 cm per second.

Black, brown, red, or blonde?

From:
Width Of Human Hair: These Statistics Are Real! - Lewigs

The scientific notation used to indicate the width and thickness of human hair is μm (micrometers), rather than mm (millimeters) and inches. Micrometers, also known as microns, are the unit of length delivered by SI – the International System of Units. 01 micron is equal to one million of a meter, or 0.001 mm or 0.000039 inches.

There is no precise value for the thickness of human hair in micrometers. The diameter of human hair is proved to range between 17 μm to 181 μm (Brian, 1999). Flaxen hair (yellowish-gray) is the thinnest with an average width of 17–50 µm, while black hair is believed to be the thickest with an average thickness of 56–181 µm.

From
NAB_Cassette_Tape_Standard_1976_searchable.pdf (richardhess.com):
1.10 Tape Thickness It shall be standard that the thickness of the magnetic tape for use in an NAB Audio Cassette be 800 micro inches (20.3 microns) maximum and 600 micro inches (15.2 microns) minimum.

O2GF74, it appears that there has been some 'decay' in your recall, or that the data stored was faulty. Choose one. There is the slim possibility that the reference was to a certain color, only, though even the thickest hair color doesn't meet the "1/10 of a human hair" standard you referenced.

As-to tape speed, that's a simple one. One and seven-eighths inches per second is the international standard used for consumer tapes in the recording of music (reference the NAB paper, above). Your statistic of 4.75 cm/second, is way-off. (4.75 cm/second X 2.54 cm/inch=12.065 inches/second) That gives 12.065 inches/second, which would make your Barry White 'bedroom' tape sound like Daffy Duck!

As-is used by machinists all-over the world, a standard of measure is that "a little-more needs-to come-off," and all the machinist needs to know, "is that a black-hair, or a blonde-hair?"

 

[VmaXXX]

Who else magnified the fist pic?

 

[02GF74]

Nope, my memory is correct. Human hair thickness I refer to is 100um, which you confirm (yes of course it varies according to race).
C90 tape is about 11.2um, from wiki so my statement of tape is 1/10 of human is fairly accurate.

The speed of 4.75cm per second is correct, you multiplied by 2.54 instead of dividing. It is equivalent to 1 7/8 in per second, as confirmed by wiki.

 

[02GF74]

Who else magnified the fist pic?

I magnified the second one.

I also thought the bike was a Honda until I read the box.

 

[Fire-medic]

You are

Nope, my memory is correct. Human hair thickness I refer to is 100um, which you confirm (yes of course it varies according to race).
C90 tape is about 11.2um, from wiki so my statement of tape is 1/10 of human is fairly accurate.

The speed of 4.75cm per second is correct, you multiplied by 2.54 instead of dividing. It is equivalent to 1 7/8 in per second, as confirmed by wiki.

View attachment 75843

Oh yes, you're correct on the division instead of multiplication, sorry! Barry White sounding like Daffy Duck would be a sight/sound!

The 90 minute tapes always wore-out quicker because they were thinner. If you wanted your tapes to last you wouldn't use 'em. Tapes commercially recorded were very-rarely 90 minutes. Because they were usually based on LP's, which were about 15 minutes a side, pre-recorded tapes usually were the same duration. Because of the poor longevity of the C90's, I rarely used them for home recordings.

 

[desert_max]

Who else magnified the fist pic?

Yeah, had to get a closer look at those pipes.