I found a short article discussing the type of tape shown in your photograph:
"In a message dated 12/31/2007 4:06:33 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
arclists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
--The arcuate-recorded voice logging system that used wide tape and a
head that swung back and forth as the tape moved slowly. Conceptually
like quad videotape, but instead of a headwheel, it has a pivoting head.
******************
Around 1960 I found in a military surplus junkyard a recorder that used four
heads on a rotating drum facing the tape, sort of like a milling machine. It
recorded narrow curved tracks across a very wide tape.
I've always have wished that I could have bought the machine but it was
built to be mounted in a battleship and much to big and heavy for me to handle at
the time.
I still have a virgin roll of the tape for the machine: "Scotch Sound
Recording Tape No. MT 20406, 8-1/2 in. X 206 Ft." It is on a machined pressboard
core with key slots to fit on a spindle of some sort. I wonder if somewhere
there are cases of used rolls waiting to reveal secrets of the cold war era.
I bought the roll with the idea of cutting it up for a Brush magnetic disc
recorder if I ever found one, another format, which I played with at a
neighbor's house as a child. I've finally acquired a disc recorder, but will
probably try 8" computer discs on it instead of cutting into the Scotch MT 20406.
Mike Csontos"
When recording tape is manufactured it is initially prepared in wide sheets that are subsequently slit into strips of the appropriate width (1/4", 1/2", 1" or 2"). The slitting process must be both accurate and precise so the width of the strip is consistent and appropriate based on the dimensions and positioning of the components in the tape path. This is not something that you will be able to do without the proper equipment and training.
