The Tefifon tape player (3)

In the Tefifon tape player, the cartridge holding plastic tape with a vertical arrangement of grooves is inserted into the player, feeding the tape into the mechanism. Playback is started by turning on the device and positioning the needle on the tape.

The photograph was taken by Nikita Braguinski at the Media Studies department, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, in April 2018. The unit shown is part of the department’s collection of historical apparatus, the Media Archaeological Fundus (accession no. 154).

For detailed technical descriptions of the Tefifon and its precursors, see

Herbert Jüttemann, Das Tefifon (Herten: Freudlieb, 2000).

Video on the history and technology of the Tefifon, made by Christina Dörfling and Ingolf Haedicke at the Media Archaeological Fundus of the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Nikita Braguinski