A telephone answering machine (TAM) is a standalone box that sits next to your landline phone where if a call isn’t answered after a certain number of rings, the machine picks up the line, plays a message and instructs the caller to leave a message.
Yes, I know, you’d think everyone in the world would know that. However bear in mind there are more than just a few kids these days that have never seen an answering machine, much less used one.
Early answering machines were large hulking things that were literally double the size of a standard telephone (in length, not width) that used reel-to-reel audio slack and looked sort of like a downsized VCR. One of the more popular brands went under the name Phone-Mate, which is sometimes seen as Phone Mate or PhoneMate. These early machines are now considered collectibles and command some fairly good prices on eBay (sometimes as much as $100 or more, depending on condition and whether you have the original box).
Answering machines started having commercial success in the 1960s, but it wasn’t until the popularity of the compact cassette (known commonly as the audiocassette or just ‘tape’) in the 1970s where people started buying TAMs left and right.
TAMs that used compact cassette either had one or two decks. Single-deck TAMs held both the incoming and outgoing messages, but a common problem is that the outgoing message would get cut off and/or recorded over accidentally once the tape started wearing out. Dual-deck TAMs solved this problem by having the outgoing message on one cassette and all incoming messages on the other.
Later on as answering machine technology progressed and things could be made smaller and smaller, microcassette TAMs were introduced. Most of them were not dual-deck because the old problems of single-deck TAMs had been resolved at that point. Microcassette answering machines were for all intents and purposes the most reliable mechanical TAMs made. Once set up, it ran without complaint for years.
Did TAMs "eat" tapes periodically? Yes, but the reason for it was because many simply bought the wrong type of tapes for the machine. Ideally, what you’re supposed to do is use cassettes that do not record any more than 30 minutes of audio. You do this because it decreases the risk of tape bunch-up and/or stretching, and increases the life span of the deck winders because they don’t have to pull as much weight.
The last iteration of TAMs were and still are the tapeless variant. At first, these TAMs were absolutely awful as the recording quality was pathetically poor at 8000 Hz or even less in some instances. Fortunately this has been resolved for the most part and I believe (but can’t confirm) that all new TAMs sold now have a auto recording quality of at least 16000 Hz.
Are answering machines still used?
Yes, but you’d be hard pressed to find anyone still using one. Even the cheapest prepaid cell phone service has voicemail service, and there isn’t a phone carrier that exists that doesn’t offer voicemail of some kind.
Will TAMs eventually stop being made completely?
I’m actually surprised they’re still made now. I expect the TAM to go completely extinct (as in no more TAMs sold new) before 2015.
Oh, and by the way, here are the two ladies of voicemail you’ve always heard but never knew who they were:
Like what you read?
If so, please join over 28,000 people who receive our exclusive weekly newsletter and computer tips, and get FREE COPIES of 5 eBooks we created, as our gift to you for subscribing. Just enter your name and email below:
Now That’s cool to see. Nice to see the faces behind the voices I’ve known all those years!
Hard pressed??? There’s one right here on my desk. Of course, it’s digital, not tape, but still. I think answering machines in the generic sense are still more in use than you let on.
Wow..I’m in he dark ages. I have an answering machine built into my phone.
With answering machines you can see if you received a call from across the room. With voice mail you have to call in to check. In this respect answering machines are easier.
Not really.
How is seeing if a light is flashing easier than calling in?
You said: “With answering machines you can see if you received a call from across the room.”
You can also see a voicemail flashing light message-waiting notification from across the room, and it doesn’t require you to call in to see the notification, therefore it’s easier than calling in.
There is one in the bedroom for the house landline and one in the basement for the work landline and two spares sitting in boxes for when either fails. All electronic now.
I probably should have saved the ones from the early days. My original phonemate, IIRC, was about 10″ by 12″ by 3″ and ran on batteries. It was also illegal to hook it to the phone system since it could possibly damage bellsouth’s wiring. At that point the only legal answering machine was from mabell and included circuit protection. All BS of course.
Unable to edit so will add here.
Also know as TADs and the jack is so noted on line splitters that give you the option of having a phone, a FAX, and a modem, all on the same line operating independently of the others, understanding that it one at a time.
I’d rather use Google Voice. It does not cost a thing, no hardware to buy or maintain. When someone leaves me a message, it will both translate it into text for me and send it to me via text or email to my cell, and I only have one number to give to everyone and they can reach me when I am at home and the cell is off, rare, or when I am on the road on my cell, Bluetooth on of course, or if I am at work, all with then only dialing one number. I guess it is easier for me to make it easier for them, all the while making it easier for me.
One ps to the post above, you don’t have a phone services charge for using their voice mail service.