1975 Dictaphone 241 dictation machine
This is an early cassette dictation recorder, made by Dictaphone. At the time, Dictaphone was making three different cassette dictation recorders, and this was their most advanced one. Controls for play/record, and backspace are located on the microphone. Fast forward rewind and erase are on the machine. For playback, fast forward rewind and play can be controlled with the optional foot pedal, seen in the last two photos. Controls for speed, tone and volume are on the front of the unit, as well as switches for mic/accessory, conference and dictate mode. On the right side, there is a switch for internal/mic speaker, and a knob to adjust the auto backspace time.
This machine was found in a dumpster next to a church. They were doing a big haul-out and this was part of their "trash", well lucky me! It needed a lot of work to get it working and looking nice.
The main drive belt had turned to that horrible black goo, so it got replaced. After I had disassembled the unit and messed around with it, it would fast forward and rewind, but the take-up reel wouldn't turn in play. I had no service manual and I couldn't tell how the take-up reel was driven, so I had to try and figure that out. After hours of looking at it, I realized how it was driven, a small roller engages with the capstan flywheel on the bottom, and it sticks through the top of the chassis and engages with the take-up reel. I just needed to lubricate the point where it moves in and out of the take-up reel, and make sure the roller was making good contact with the capstan on the bottom.
After It was working, I had to deal with the plastic cover for the unit and the mic, which were very yellowed, and very dirty. After cleaning all the dirt off both of them, I used the method "Retrobrite" to remove the yellowing from the plastic(see photo 6). It took two days until all yellowing was gone.
After that, I reassembled it, and it is now fully restored!
