Sony model TP-5S telephone pickup
date: label: date made
content: ca 1970
name: label: maker
content: Sony
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: A telephone pickup for recording telephone conversations with a Sony TC-142, CF-610/620 (or other) tape recorder. Unit could be used as a do-it-yourself answering machine, or surreptitious recording device. A suction cup holds the transducer to the telephone. Includes a 60" cord.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The ability to record telephone conversations either by wire-taps or by use of microphones has been a significant consideration during the development and diffusion of telephone technology. Congressional hearings were held in the 1920s on the subject. The Bell System actively suppressed answering machine development due to the fear that people would not make phone calls if they thought those calls might be recorded. This small device was designed to attach to a telephone handset and allowed the user to record conversations on a typical cassette recorder. Unlike complicated wire-taps or intrusive microphones, this small transducer was easy to use on any phone and relatively unobtrusive.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2022.0278.09
label: accession number
content: 2022.0278
label: catalog number
content: 2022.0278.09
objectType: label: Object Name
content: transducer
label: Object Name
content: microphone
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 in x 1 1/4 in; 2.54 cm x 3.175 cm