Cool record player

I just stumbled across this paragraph:

"Un-turntable: In the days when vinyl was the popular medium for recorded music, Sony came up with a tiny, battery-operated "car" that contained a mini-amplifier and loudspeaker and a cartridge and stylus on the bottom of the "chassis." The idea was to lay an LP on a flat surface and have the vehicle race in circles around the grooves, playing the music through the speaker in the car. A prototype was made, but it was deemed too costly to bring to market. Flat tire."

Anybody ever heard of this before? Obviously it didn't get past the prototype stage mentioned.

Complete article on inventions is at:

http://future.newsday.com/6/ffail.htm

 

Yep, and it worked too. Wow, what fidelity! (Not!)

Also, another nifty patent... was used for an Aerosmith Holiday Xmas card. It was a fold/over with a tiny needle on the fold, the fold being the "natural amplifier" like a horn on a phonograph. You used your finger to rotate the Flexidisc that employed a plastic rivet that your finger fit into. Put the needle on the record, and spin the floppy-record!

The Xmas message from Aerosmith came through quite clear, and was right after they bought the music rights to their early catalogue. "Sell your soul for half a skillion....Fa la la... Fa la la laaa... Buy it back for 20 Million...." Part of the "Deck The Halls" gag included a reference to getting ripped off by a label; "Now, it's YOUR turn in the barrel!" Which was a vulgar visualization, if you know the joke very well.

Saw this one, and I flipped out. A working, self-contained record player.