[BC] BC] Cart machines

[Broadcast List USER]

Actually, much more tha 90 degrees.  If the axle were to only go down  
90 degrees, the "top" half of the pinch roller would block the cart  
from being inserted in the machine.  It was more like 135 to 145  
degrees.

One of the more interesting cart machines i ever used was the IGM  
Instacart.

The ones I worked on were two columns of, kind of, groups of four  
decks.  For the life of me I don't recall if there were 12 or 16 decks  
in each column.  I seem to recall it had 16, for a total of 24 decks.   
There were two REALLY LONG capstans.  The carts were put on aluminum  
trays with black plastic "handles" on the front.  The pinch roller was  
fixed at vertical on the tray, and there was a nylon bushing which was  
on an extension a bit further toward the rear of the machine when the  
tray was inserted in the machine.

The tray was removed from the machine and a cart would be placed down  
on the tray, over the vertical pinch roller.  The back end of the cart  
was against the black plastic handle on the front of the tray.

When a cart was called for, it was pulled back using that nylon  
wheel.  This would pull the cart forward very slightly, and pull the  
pinch roller against the capstan.

IGM made a 48 deck version of the machine.

Mutual originally had five of these in Master Control.  Four for the  
four main commercial regionalization areas, three of which were  
basically Time Zones. The fourth was a smaller regionalization.

Originally, because of union rules, the news caster delivered the news  
cuts to Master Control, where the operations technician placed them in  
the approprate tray.  Later, concessions allowed for ITC 3D machines  
to be placed in the news announce booths, and two more news booths  
were build adjacent to the newsroom as it was no longer necessary for  
the Master Control operator to see the cues for the cuts.

The original fifth machine was a spare.  I believe more were added  
after I left.  I didn't think they were that bad for what they were.

IGM also made one that was like a racetrack.  The cards would move in  
an oval, and there was only one playing position.

There are some bad pictures at:

http://www.uship.com/shipment/IGM-InstaCart-48-Broadcast-Cart-Machine/151359808/

--chip

On Nov 23, 2010, at 12:12 PM, broadcast-request at radiolists.net wrote:

> Message: 7
> From: RichardBJohnson at comcast.net
> [...]
> (2)	The "against physics" design of hiding a pressure roller until  
> the cartridge is in place, requiring that its axle rotate 90 degrees  
> on a spindle, after which it must pull the tape evenly across the  
> head without skew --defective in concept, impossible to properly  
> design.
> [...]
> Cheers,
> Richard B. Johnson
> Book: http://www.AbominableFirebug.com/