NTU Library - Time and Machine Gallery

Display 2 - Exhibit 8, 9, 10: Microform

NTU Library carried microform material in two formats - microfiche and microfilm. Microform is an umbrella term for material where visual content has been reproduced in a greatly scaled-down size.

The concept of micro-photography was first introduced in 1839 by optician and inventor John Benjamin Dancer, and later developed commercially for use in banks during the 1920s. Microform would also be used at libraries as a distribution and archival format. A notable example was Harvard University Library’s Foreign Newspaper Project in the 1930s, which preserved old newspapers in microfilm format.

Today, microform continues to be valued as a compact and durable format for preserving old documents – with proper storage, microform is estimated to be able to last over 500 years.

Microfiche

Microfiche contains micro-images in a grid arrangement on 105 mm film stock, which is cut into smaller sheets that are viewable on a microfiche reader. Microfiche commonly comes in 4 x 6-inch sheets, each containing up to 98 micro-images. While microfiche readers are no longer available at NTU Library, you can watch this video (from 02:19 to 03:07) to find out how the machines were used to view library catalogues in microfiche form.

Exhibit 8 is a microfiche sheet from NTU Library's catalogue, dated October 1994. With the launch of library discovery tool OneSearch in 2012, users can now easily search and access NTU Library's various resources with just one search box.

Exhibit 9 is a microfiche journal. Back in the day, besides print journals, some of NTU Library's subscribed journals came in microfiche form. Now, with NTU Library's e-resource subscriptions, users can easily access journals on the go on their own devices.

Microfilm

Microfilm captures images in greatly reduced sizes on a film reel and is an incredibly compact data storage format. Microfilm reels can come in 16 mm or 35 mm widths.

Exhibit 10 is The Business Times newspaper microfilm dated 1 to 15 May 1999. NTU Library keeps an archive of The Straits Times and Business Times in microfilm format. Users may borrow and view microfilm reels at the microfilm readers available at Business Library and Chinese Library.

Watch the video below to find out how to view microfilm reels using microfilm readers at NTU Library.

Here are some media and machines from the Audiovisual Department (in operation from 1994–1998), which can be found at the Time and Machine display located on Level 2 of Lee Wee Nam Library.

DISPLAY 1: AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS IN ANALOGUE FORMAT

All the media presented at our display are analogue – do you know the difference between analogue and digital technologies?

While analogue devices store information by capturing a representation of the original (for example, images captured on film are a miniature representation of the original scene), digital devices convert recorded information into numbers.

Display 1 - Exhibit 1, 2, 3: Film Reels

NTU Library kept film reels as archival material for films and motion pictures.

Exhibit 1, 2, and 3 are 16 mm film reels.

Exhibit 1 is a film reel of a video training course titled "Meetings, Bloody Meetings", which was first approved in 1983 for viewing in Singapore. Owing to its popularity as an educational resource in NTU's communications courses, "Meetings, Bloody Meetings" was also made available in videocassette format (see Exhibit 5a).

Exhibit 2 is a 1970 film reel containing an educational video resource for engineering students titled "Concrete Practice: Placing and Compacting".

Exhibit 3 is a 19-- film reel titled "Paris Subway", which shows the construction of two tunnels between the Regional Central Metro station and the Lion Station.

Film reels came in several sizes. Image from Clipoemsart, CC BY-SA 4.0.

The original film reel was a wheel-like frame that held about 300 m of 35 mm film, which yielded about 10 minutes of video. The clarity of the film footage depended on reel size. As film technology developed further, film stock would also come in other widths such as 16 mm and 8 mm.

When recording, the lens of the camera shines light on the film, which causes it to darken – creating negatives, or images in inverted colours.

The first moving image was produced in 1888 by a Frenchman named Louis LePrince, who shot a 2-second-long video of his family and friends titled the Roundhay Garden Scene. After 1912, longer movies started to achieve widespread popularity, and multiple-reel pictures, as they were called, would go on to become what we know today as feature films.

Did you know:

• In the era of silent films, live bands and orchestras would sometimes accompany movies to help provide sound.
• A good movie transports you to a different world, but back in the day, movies captured in film reels had to be flown all over to cinemas for viewing.

Display 1 - Exhibit 4, 5(a), 5(b): Videocassettes

At NTU Library, video content such as training guides, documentaries, international movies, and more were frequently sought after by faculty and students to aid teaching and learning. Back then, these video resources were commonly available in videocassette formats such as U-matic and Video Home System (VHS).

Videocassettes were plastic cassettes that held videotape, a magnetic tape that recorded and played video and audio. With videocassettes, people could store hours of footage in a lightweight format, a far cry from the heavy film reels of the past.

U-matic

The U-matic, invented by Sony in 1969, was the first-ever videocassette and found great popularity at television stations. The U-matic had a large cassette size and contained 0.75 inch video tape. Though it had a relatively shorter run-time compared to later videocassettes, its study form made it durable.

VHS

Video Home System (VHS) was a video tape recording standard first released in 1976 by the Victory Company of Japan (JVC), which would eventually become the predominant videocassette format.

VHS cassettes held about 430 m of 0.5 inch magnetic tape and could play up to 5 hours of footage. Various VHS sub-formats would also come along, with VHS-C introduced in 1982 and S-VHS in 1987.

Did you know:

• VHS was one of several competing videocassette formats during the early 1980s. VHS would eventually triumph over its biggest competitor, Betamax, as VHS tapes were cheaper and offered longer run times.
• "Meetings, Bloody Meetings" is a video recording that has been available at NTU Library first as a film reel, and later as a videocassette – a testament to its popularity as an educational resource. It was used in the communications courses of NTU. 
  

Display 1 - Exhibit 6: LaserDisc

NTU Library maintained a LaserDisc (LD) collection of prominent classic films and educational videos.

Introduced in 1978, the LD was 12 inches in diameter - 2.5 times bigger than an average compact disc (CD). A competing audiovisual format to VHS, LD's invention heralded subsequent technologies like the CD, Digital Versatile Disc (DVD), and MiniDisc.

A comparison of several disc storage formats. Image adapted from Cmglee, CC BY-SA 3.0.

LDs played about 30 minutes of video per side, and like tape cassettes, users had to manually flip the disc over halfway through playing it.

Exhibit 6, a 1982 LD titled "The Puzzle of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Collapse", was an important video resource for civil engineering courses that was first available only in LD form. In the 2000s, a faculty requested that the title be made accessible for multiple users at any one time, but this was not possible with the physical copy of the LD. Hence, the Library went the extra mile to obtain copyright clearance, digitise and upload the title to the video-on-demand server for wider access.

Did you know:

• Though a LD looks like a giant CD, the former is analogue unlike the latter, which is digital.
• The LD struggled to achieve mainstream prominence as it was bulky, fragile, expensive, and could not record content, unlike formats like VHS and DVD.

Display 1 - Exhibit 7: Tape Cassette

In the past, language textbooks in NTU Library's collection often came with supplementary tape cassettes to support language learning at the university.

Exhibit 7: Tape cassette - Le nouveau sans frontières 1 : méthode de français [sound recording]. 1995

Exhibit 7 is from a 1995 set of French-language tape cassettes titled "Le nouveau sans frontières 1 : méthode de français".

First developed in the 1960s, tape cassettes, also known as cassette tapes, audiocassettes, and Compact Cassettes, allowed people to distribute sound recordings and music more conveniently and widely.

About 0.15 inch wide, tape cassettes had two sides (A- and B-sides) that users had to manually flip between while playing. Each side typically contained up to 30 minutes of audio. Tape cassettes could either be sold with pre-recorded material or as a blank tape.

In the 1990s, tape cassettes would eventually dwindle in popularity as CDs rose in use.

Did you know:

The audiocassette was originally created as a dictation tool rather than to record and play music.

DISPLAY 2: DATA STORAGE MEDIA

As computers were introduced to the university, print books and journals at NTU Library were increasingly accompanied by supplementary material on floppy disks. For example, computer books often came with software stored on floppy disks.

Display 2 - Exhibit 11, 12: Floppy Disks

A comparison of different data storage formats. Image adapted from Cmglee, CC BY-SA 3.0.

A floppy disk is a magnetic storage medium first introduced by IBM in 1971. The original floppy disk had a diameter of 8 inches, with a storage capacity of about 80 KB - a number that would seem insignificant today but was considered ground-breaking at the time.

Throughout the years, the floppy disk would get smaller as its storage capacity increased.

5.25 inch floppy disk

The 5.25 inch floppy, which was introduced in 1976 and used throughout the 1980s, stored about 100 KB of information. Exhibit 11 is a pair of 5.25 inch floppy disks from 1987 containing installation and search software for a database of dissertation abstracts.

3.5 inch floppy disk

The 3.5 inch floppy, invented in 1984 and popular throughout the 1990s, had 1.44 MB of storage space. Exhibit 12 is a 1992 set of 3.5 inch floppy disks for "Microsoft Word (2.0) for Windows: Basic Skills", containing installation software, a clipboard disk, and practice exercises.

Micro flash memory cards. 

Did you know:

Today, it is not surprising to find micro flash memory cards that can contain up to 1 TB of data. The first 5 MB hard disk unit in 1956, however, weighed over 1,000 kg and had to be carried around with a forklift.

Display 3 - Exhibit 13: Cassette Deck

Cassette decks were available at the Audiovisual Department for users to listen to tape cassettes containing supplementary materials for language learning or audiobooks.

The very first cassette deck was a battery-operated compact cassette recorder introduced in 1963 by Phillips.

Audio was recorded onto tape cassettes (see Exhibit 7) with an electromagnet within the cassette deck. During playback, the magnetic surface of the cassette's tape would in turn be interpreted by a tape head in the deck and converted into sound. Tape cassettes would be the go-to medium for recording audio until the late 1990s, where it was overshadowed by newer digital formats like recordable audio CDs.

Exhibit 13 is a 1987 Philips FC567 Dual Logic Stereo Cassette Deck, accompanied by a tape cassette from the 1995 set of French-language tape cassettes "Le nouveau sans frontières 1 : méthode de français".

Did you know:

Re-recording audio onto tape cassettes was not as clean-cut as clicking 'copy' and 'paste' on computers. Sound from previous tracks would sometimes remain as background noise and accumulate with each re-recording. It was better to use blank tapes or a tape head de-magnetiser to ensure clear recordings.

Display 3 - Exhibit 14: Videocassette Recorder (VCR)

NTU Library provided VCRs at the Audiovisual Department for users to watch videocassettes containing documentaries, international movies, and local television broadcast programmes.

Exhibit 14: Videocassette recorder (VCR) - Sharp VC-AA350 Video Cassette Recorder. Early 2000s

The videocassette recorder is a device that uses magnetic tape to record, store, and play video footage. It contains tape heads that read and inscribe video and audio tracks onto the magnetic tape of a videocassette.

The very first magnetic tape video recorder by Ampex. Image from Karl Baron, CC BY 2.0.

In 1956, Ampex introduced the very first magnetic tape video recorder for use at television broadcasting studios. Videocassette recorders for home use would come along several years later in the 1960s and become a staple household device by the 1970s.

Exhibit 14 is a Sharp VC-AA350 Video Cassette Recorder from the early 2000s accompanied by the VHS title "An Immigrant's Story with Sweat, Tears and Toil: The Samsui Women", a 1995 current affairs programme produced by the Television Corporation of Singapore (TCS) now known as Mediacorp.

Did you know:

VCRs allowed people to record content playing on television for re-watching, sparking debates over copyright infringement among companies such as Universal City Studios and The Walt Disney Company. Personal recordings of television programmes were eventually deemed 'fair use' under copyright law.

Display 3 - Exhibit 15: Cathode-Ray Tube Television (CRT TV)

Exhibit 15: Cathode-ray tube television (CRT TV) - Sony KV-T21MN11 Trinitron Color TV. 1995

CRT TVs, fondly known as 'box TVs', were often accompanied by videocassette recorders at NTU Library's Audiovisual Department for users to view video resources.

CRT TVs are based on cathode-ray tube technology, first developed in 1897 by German physicist Ferdinand Braun. The cathode-ray tube is a vacuum where streams of electrons are guided by electricity to trace patterns on a fluorescent screen.

The first working electronic television system was created in 1931 by Vladimir Zworykin, working off the combined efforts of himself and his competitor Philo Farnsworth. By 1936, 2,000 television sets would be in use around the world.

Exhibit 15 is a 1995 Sony KV-T21MN11 Trinitron Color TV, accompanied by Exhibit 14: Videocassette Recorder, and a 1995 VHS titled "An Immigrant's Story with Sweat, Tears and Toil: The Samsui Women".

Did you know:

In Singapore, free-to-air channels went digital from December 2013, and analogue TV broadcast officially ceased on 2 January 2019. Analogue CRT TVs that could not receive digital signals required a special set-top box. Those switching from CRT to flatscreen TVs had to lookout for digital-ready labels that indicated that the TV could receive digital signals.

Display 6 - Exhibit 18: Microfilm Carrier

Exhibit 18: Microfilm carrier (from microfilm reader) - Canon Autocarrier 100R M38044 Microfilm Carrier

Microfilm readers, which contain lenses to magnify microfilm material (see Exhibit 10) to readable proportions, were provided at NTU Library for users to view microfilm reels.

Exhibit 18 is a microfilm carrier, a machine part that would have been attached to a microfilm reader.

When preparing to view microfilm on the reader, a user would place the reel on the spindle of the carrier, before inserting the reel through the rollers and glass panel into the take-up reel.

Did you know:

NTU Library still has microfilm readers at Business Library and Chinese Library. These microfilm readers offer scanning and printing functions as well. Watch this video to learn about microfilm readers at our libraries.

Display 7 - Exhibit 19: Slide Projector

Exhibit 19: Slide projector - Telex Caramate 4484 Sound Slide Projector. 1980s

Slide projectors were provided for use in the Audiovisual Department and could also be found in NTU's lecture theatres and tutorial rooms.

An early predecessor to the PowerPoint slides of today, slide projectors gained prominence in the 1950s as a home entertainment device where people would gather to watch personal photographs magnified onto a screen. Slide projectors were also popular at educational institutions as a visual instructional tool.

The unique design of the slide projector's carousel trays made slides easier to load into the projector, prevented them from spilling out, and could be detached from the machine for easy storage.

Exhibit 19 is a Telex Caramate 4484 Sound Slide Projector from the 1980s, accompanied by slides from NTU Library's past. Though the machine is no longer functioning, you can still view the slides using the Kodak slide and film viewer at the Time and Machine display. Thanks to technology, the memories and nostalgia behind these images live on.

Did you know:

Back in the days of the Audiovisual Department, NTU Library offered a collection of educational slides that supported teaching and learning at the university.

Display 4 - Exhibit 16, 17: Typewriters

Before computers, the typewriter was an important office machine for the daily tasks of NTU Library staff. The typewriter was invented in 1867 by American inventor Christopher Sholes and became a viable commercial product in 1874. Increasingly popular during the 20th century, typewriters hit peak usage in the mid-1970s before being eclipsed by computers from the 1980s onwards.

Upon pressing the keys of a typewriter, steel types in the machine produce printed characters by striking paper through an ink ribbon. The paper in the typewriter will be moved along whenever a key is struck.

Exhibit 16 is a 1978 Olympia SG3(N) manual typewriter, while Exhibit 17 is a 1980s Canon MX260 electronic typewriter.

Did you know:

• Some long-serving NTU Library staff recall attending typewriting courses, taking turns to use the office typewriter, and that a typewriting test was sometimes part of the hiring process.
• The proficiency of a typist is measured as words per minute with high accuracy (or WPM). When a typist goes too fast, the arms of the typewriter can sometimes jam into a pile.