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History of the manufacturer  

3M, Lake Superior

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Name: 3M, Lake Superior    (USA)  
Abbreviation: 3m
Products: Others
Summary:

Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co. (3M), Lake Superior.
Leading manufacturer of magnetic recording tape.

Führender Magnetband-Hersteller.

Founded: 1902
History:
Begann im Jahr 1902 mit der Produktion von Schleifpapier.
Kunststoffproduktion, vor allem Folien.
Stellt heute unter anderem Klebebänder,("Post-it") und alles was damit zu tun hat, her.
Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co. (3M).
Originally founded in 1902 in Minnesota USA with the basic idea being to mine corundum and manufacture sandpaper and other abrasives out of it, sadly it turned out that the material that they were mining was actually anorthosite, however after financial injection from investors the company survived as a manufacturer of abrasive products but has never bothered much with mining since.
After a couple of quiet decades the company started expanding aggressively by buying in technology to make improved products and to expand into markets were that technology could be utilised this meant the by the 1940's the company was the best known producer in the USA of abrasive and adhesive products and was one of the very few companies that actually managed to grow substantially during the depression, by that time the company was better known by the shortened 3M.
Due to their expertise in manufacturing adhesive tape products the US Army hooked them up with the Brush Development Company in order to develop magnetic recording media and in conjunction with Brush they developed both a recording tape similar to the one described in the original Pfeiffer patents and designed to work with the round magnetic head that the Brush company developed in the early 40's, however 3M actually never produced the tape formulation since it had been given the IP that the US Army had retrieved from BASF and the company actually decided to wait until clones of the Magnetophon appeared and the Brush company was forced to turn to Shellmar in 1946 to manufacture blank magnetic media for the Brush Soundmirror and the Mail-A-Voice thus making Shellmar rather than 3M the first manufacturer of magnetic tape in the USA.
3M did however introduce magnetic tape in 1947 that they sold under the same Scotch brandname that they used for adhesive tape and introduced the worlds first magnetic video tape in conjunction with Ampex in 1954.
The 3M company always had some interest in getting into the hardware side of the business especially the dictation sector which they saw as one of the opportunities to widen the market for magnetic recording products, they were offered the Pierce Wire Recorder Corp. company in or around 1950 but declined and actually decided to develop their own magnetic dictation belt recorder called simply Scotch Dictation Belt but in the end never marketed it.
However when their closest hardware collaborator Ampex decided to start manufacturing blank media 3M countered by buying the Revere company in 1960, this was an ideal match for the company since Revere manufactured not only tape recorders but also photographic and home movie equipment which were markets that 3M were entering at the same time.
Initially the company continued to sell products derived from the Revere line up although in the mid 60's they phased out the Revere brand in favour of the more upmarket Wollensak brand, but a few recorders were sold branded with both names during the transition, in the latter half of the 60's the company went head to head with Ampex when they introduced professional recorders.
The Wollensak division was closed in 1972, but manufacture of professional audio and video recorders continued until 1984.
In 1995 the company decided to restructure all it's media manufacturing into a separate public company which is called Imation.

This manufacturer was suggested by Peter Böhm.


Some models:
Country Year Name 1st Tube Notes
USA  64 Cantata 700 94ZB [walnut]   This cartridge play-only machine is housed in a finished walnut cabinet with a built-in sp... 
USA  85 Scotch - Video 8 - 8mm Video Cassette [All]   This page is for all SCOTCH labeled VIDEO 8 type Video Cassette tapes for all TV s... 
USA  76 Scotch - VHS Video Cassette - Videocassette [All]   This page is for all Scotch labeled VHS type Video Cassette Tapes for all TV standards.... 
USA  82 Scotch - VHS-C Compact Video Cassette [All]   This page is for all Scotch labeled VHS-C type Video Cassette tapes for all TV standard... 
USA  75 Scotch Beta ß Video Cassette [All]   This page is for all SCOTCH labeled Beta ß (Betamax) type Video Cassette tapes for all ... 
USA  65 Scotch™ - Magnetic Tape - Bande Magnetique - Magnetband - Na [All]   This page is for all 3M Scotch open reel tapes.  Please do not modify this pag... 
USA  87 Scotch - S-VHS-C - Super VHS C Video Cassette [All]   This page is for all Scotch™ labeled S-VHS-C type Super Video Cassette Tapes Compact&nb... 
USA  73 Flutter Meter 8155A   3M Flutter Meter 8155A for measuring the percentage of wow & flutter e.g. of tape r... 
USA  78 Flutter Meter 8160   3M Flutter Meter 8160 for measuring the percentage of wow & flutter and speed devia... 
USA  72 Mincom Series 120   3M Mincom Series 120 is a 4-channel tape recorder intended for measuring purposes that use... 
USA  95 Compact Video Cassette EC-30   SCOTCH Compact Video Cassette EXG model EC 30 - VHS "C" Pal/Secam - 30 minute recordi... 
USA  84 Compactape Tape cartridge for TK50 Drive   This special tape was developed by Digital Equipment Corporation. Was the first of 15 mode... 

[rmxhdet-en]

Further details for this manufacturer by the members (rmfiorg):

tbn_usa_3m_scotch_advertise_1952.jpg
tbn_usa_3m_scotch_ad1953.jpg
tbn_usa_3m_scotch_ad_1953.jpg
tbn_usa_3m_scotch_ad1_1953.jpg
tbn_usa_3m_scotch_advertise.jpg
tbn_usa_3m_scotch_advertise_1954.jpg
tbn_usa_3m_scotch_advertise1954.jpg
tbn_usa_3m_mincom_pd_1000_advertise1965.jpg
tbn_usa_3m_vintage_ad.jpg
tbn_usa_3m_flyingsaucer_1957.jpg
tbn_usa_3m_scotch_ad_magictape.jpg
tbn_usa_3m_advertise_1983.jpg
tbn_usa_3m_ad1969.jpg
tbn_usa_3m_olivianjohn_1982.jpg
tbn_usa_3m_scotch_videocassettes_printad_1982.jpg
tbn_usa_3m_scotch_b0y_print_ad_1957.jpg

  

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