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Widget of the Week
Electron
52D Tape Recorder 1969
 No, you
are not seeing double, the mini tape recorder on the left is a tiny Japanese
machine called a Tinico, dating from around 1963 and the one on the right is an
equally tiny tape recorder, called an Electron 52D, but it was made in the late
sixties, in the former Soviet Union. If they look very similar that's because
they are; in fact the Electron is a near identical copy of the Tinico.
 The
differences, such as they are, are fairly minor in nature. The Electron's case
has squarer edges, it has a 2.5mm instead of a 3.5mm jack socket, the printed
circuit board uses different components, there's the addition of a small output
transformer, and the wiring inside the Electron is a lot neater. In fact the
only thing that really distinguishes the two is that the Electron works better.
Clearly whoever designed it had the benefit of hindsight and managed to iron
out some of the problems with the Tinico's fiddly mechanics and terrible speed
stability. The Electron is still a bit wobbly but it is useable as a voice
recorder!
It's
interesting to speculate on this machine's origins and I would dearly like to
believe it was a product of Cold war, Soviet era espionage. It's certainly
small enough - not much larger than a pack of cigarettes -- but I really cannot
believe any serious spook would consider using one of these to make covert
recordings; there were plenty of better machines available on both sides of the
Iron Curtain. Apart from anything else the titchy 45mm (1.75-inch) reels only
hold enough tape for around 10 to 15 minutes worth of recording. My guess is
that like the Tinico it was intended as a low-cost dictation machine and was
probably made under licence in the USSR. The similarities are just too numerous
to make it a simple knock-off, though such things did occur and there are
examples of western products, particularly cameras, being ruthlessly copied, so
if anyone can shed any light on its manufacturing history I would be very
interested to hear from them.
What
Happened To It?
Without
knowing how many were produced, and for how long it's difficult to say how
common they are but my feeling is that it wasn't around for very long and is
probably quite rare, I've certainly never seen one on ebay or other on-line
collections.
This
machine came to me courtesy of Dustygizmos reader Mikhail Samoylenko, who tells
me it is probably one of only a tiny handful of machines outside of Russia. It
was given to him some time ago and was probably made in 1969 in Poltava,
central Ukraine. Like many of the mini recorders that I collect it has appeared on the sliver screen, albeit the small one. It played a minor
role in a 1970's Russian TV series about a WW2 spy, called Seventeen Months of
Spring - there's a screen grab here.
Apparently this particular
Electron once belonged to a medical school and the tape it came with contains a recording of an
autopsy, which lends credence to the tape recorder's intended role as dictating
machine. I doubt very much I'll be seeing another one of these anytime soon but
if anyone else out there has one, get in touch and we'll form a very exclusive
owners club...
GIZMO
GUIDE
First
seen: 1969?
Original
Price £ unknown
Value
Today? £150
Features: Play, Record, Rewind
Stop buttons, headphone/microphone jack
Power
req. 2 x AA
cells, 1 x 9volt PP3
Weight: 0.3kg
Dimensions: 160 x 60 x 45mm
Made
in: Former
Soviet Union
Hen's
Teeth (10 rarest): 9.5
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