User avatar
By 910dohead
#4827062
I've been doing a lot of research lately on the containment unit and its labels. I want to share a little bit of information I discovered about the bumper sticker. Unfortunately, what I am about to post is probably going to be a monkey wrench with the probability of it being the Toshiba logo. First, while taking a look at more blower motors then I would ever care to, I discovered a brand that also has a similar look to the old Toshiba logo: Tamagawa Seiki.

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The "T" is fashioned very similar to the "T" in Toshiba. I figured that this is also a lead to chase especially since they use blue/chrome labels. Next, I took this logo and tried to fit it on the bumper sticker. Unfortunately, the Tamagawa logo simply would not match up while trying to fit it on to the bumper label screen shot. The old Toshiba logo was still a better candidate.

Now, with the Tamagawa lead shot down, I decided to take a closer look at the bumper sticker. I took the 4k blu-ray and got myself better screen shots. Here are several unmodified shots of the label that I captured.

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Next, I took this same image and I sharpened it.

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Then I played with the brightness and contrast.

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Does anyone else see this going on with the logo?

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Finally, I centered on the middle image because I felt that was the best screenshot I got from the captures and blew it up.

Unmodified:
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Sharpened:
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Brightened:
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I have a love/hate feeling going on with finding information like this. It certainly helps, but at the same time I wouldn't mind just settling on the Toshiba logo and calling it a day. What do you guys think?
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By BarnDoor
#4827072
The closest thing I have seen so far, to the proton pack bumper sticker, is on an Eastern Air Devices motor.

But that doesn't match the shape of your logo, unfortunately. Maybe they used other logos ?

Those holes in the case look good, don't they ?

Image
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By ectotwinkie
#4827076
Way things are going the bumper sticker is probably on the inside of Ecto-1a's sun visor.
We''ll know for sure, when we know for sure...the truth is out there... somewhere...

BarnDoor - Sticker + N-Filter niiice :)
User avatar
By AJ Quick
#4827096
That's really cool. My initial reaction was to also say, hey that's the N-Filter too!

But I think we already know that all the aluminum tubes were custom made for the packs. It is unlikely that the motor would have been turned into the N-Filter.

I think you're on the right track with EAD though. Their motor specs are the closest to anything we've seen so far.
User avatar
By AJ Quick
#4827100
I'm not sure though in the end that it was EAD that made them. I feel like they would have put EAD directly on the sticker rather than below it. I've looked at many EAD motors now, and this is about as close as the style of label comes:

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By ectotwinkie
#4827214
Demon Vice Commander wrote:
ectotwinkie wrote:Image
I've been trying to ID this label for some time, but haven't had any luck. It also appears on both sides of the rear roof tank:

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910dohead's find...

910dohead wrote:I was doing research on the unknown labels and discovered that the long black label that's all over Ecto-1A is by Burroughs!

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It's going to be on a calculator or similar product. Now, it's a matter of finding a match.
By ectotwinkie
#4827235
Demon Vice Commander wrote::crunch: Incredible! I've been looking for this label for over a year. I'd be willing to recreate a version of this for the community.
This is the Burroughs B90 hard disk drive ID plate...

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- Image used with the kind permission of Chris at the 'Burroughs Corporation and Burroughs Machines' Site
- http://www.picklesnet.com/burroughs/des ... roughs.htm

It seems to have more text (address) on the left and missing a line of text under the 'Burroughs' but proportions good.
By ectotwinkie
#4827338
Demon Vice Commander wrote:Here's a rough version of the Burroughs label I made today. It still needs some work, mostly with the text placement, but it's a start.

Image
Nice job! I'm chasing the logotype and trying to find other examples
By BarnDoor
#4827581
AJ Quick wrote:On the front of the EAD motor. I contacted a seller on eBay that had one and the diameter of the motor is under 2". Too small to be related to the N-filter (which as we all know was custom made anyways).
Ah, sorry to send you on a wild-goose chase . Reading your earlier post, it seems the motor on the bumper label is quite low power - not enough to drive a movie camera - more likely as previous posters have suggested, a record turntable.

Do we know the history of the packs actual design conception? It looks inspired by camera and lighting parts to some extent.
Was something mocked up using found parts, and then worked on and developed by the prop designers to make it into what we know today ?

Joe
User avatar
By Demon Vice Commander
#4827596
BarnDoor wrote:
AJ Quick wrote:Do we know the history of the packs actual design conception? It looks inspired by camera and lighting parts to some extent. Was something mocked up using found parts, and then worked on and developed by the prop designers to make it into what we know today ?
I've always thought that the Bumper greatly resembles a bracket for a studio lamp (cut down, of course), and the Gun Track looks like it could be a mounting plate of some sort for a 16mm or 35mm camera.

Just my thoughts...
By gold333
#4846401
Any ideas where the other labels are from? Like the Danger, 1kv, etc. labels?
By ShadesMcPherson
#4846450
BarnDoor wrote:
Do we know the history of the packs actual design conception? It looks inspired by camera and lighting parts to some extent.
Was something mocked up using found parts, and then worked on and developed by the prop designers to make it into what we know today ?
There's a photo of the first proton pack prototype, made by Steve Dane, in the new Visual History. It looks exactly like the final packs, from the tiny picture anyways.

Perhaps that one is the "super-hero" version. If I recall, I've seen a picture showing the layers of material it was made from originally, but maybe that's from the original piece before being cast into metal? I've been digging a big to see if it is, in fact, a yoke from a stage/film light, but nothing concrete yet. Closest I've found is the yoke for an Altman Comet follow spotlight, but I think it's too wide and doesn't have a center plate like the bumper has.
User avatar
By 910dohead
#4924176
You may be onto something with that company there but I don't know if that is an exact match. There's a very strong possibility that the bumper label is a proprietary one and that we've all been looking in the wrong place this whole time.

I have done a LOT of research trying to find this label and/or manufacturer. With what I have discovered so far, I am almost certain that I know where the labels comes from but I don't have solid, definitive proof (as of yet). The device that may be holding the secret to the label also has other labels used on various Ghostbusters props. To go even further than that, the origin of the proton pack bellow and the GB1 ribbon cable may also be housed in these devices too (not to mention milky hat lights and other fun little greeblies).

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This device is vacuum tape recorder that's part of a larger workstation that computed numbers. It works by utilizing a long vacuum chamber which is fed analog recording tape to access and record data. The tape from the reels suck the tape down to a specific part in the chamber to access certain parts of data on the tape. Not only is the bellow located at the bottom behind the vacuum chamber, but it's my theory that the bumper label sits on the top of the synchronous motor that spins the analog reels.

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I will post an update later in my groups containment unit build thread. I have lots of photos and hopefully the info may blow a few minds. The crappy thing about these units is their rarity. Not only are the vacuum reel devices super rare but a fully intact workstation usually only exists in museums this day in age. Pinpointing and finding the exact manufacturer and model of the correct unit where the label resides is probably going to prove to be paper-thin rare unfortunately.

When you see what I have to say in the post, you'll realize that the prop makers on Ghostbusters got their hands on a bunch of these workstation devices, tore them up and used what they could out of them. My money is on it being Burroughs.

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Last edited by 910dohead on September 16th, 2019, 3:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
AJ Quick, Coover5, RedSpecial and 2 others liked this
User avatar
By 910dohead
#4924200
AJ Quick wrote: September 16th, 2019, 2:54 pm That's amazing and I think you are probably on the right track! I can't believe I had never seen the cut off part of the label either!
Thanks, AJ. I hope that I am on the right track too. Wait until you see some of the photos I have been able to dig up and I think you will be a little more convinced. I had intended to post the update today, but I had something come up that I have to take care of. However, I will try and get the update posted tomorrow.
User avatar
By AJ Quick
#4924201
No worries. Now you've sent me down a rabbit hole of searching!

BTW. The motors in a magnetic tape reel are apparently referred to as "capstan" motors. They are in fact Synchronous motors that are approximately the same horsepower. It definitely fits!

PS. Here is a photo of the vacuum bellows assembly.

Image
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User avatar
By 910dohead
#4924202
AJ Quick wrote: September 16th, 2019, 3:15 pm No worries. Now you've sent me down a rabbit hole of searching!

BTW. The motors in a magnetic tape reel are apparently referred to as "capstan" motors. They are in fact Synchronous motors that are approximately the same horsepower. It definitely fits!

PS. Here is a photo of the vacuum bellows assembly.

Image
It's a fun rabbit hole to go down too! However, it's aggravating when you can't find an exact match. I think it's going to be one of those things someone is going to have to discover in person. Also, I don't know how you pulled up that picture of that assembly so fast! This is the first time I have seen that. Let's hope the info I have provided starts making some wonderful discoveries!
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User avatar
By Kingpin
#4924232
Either that's an underlayer of blue, or the label had an outter border of blue, though I believe the latter is less likely as the top left and right corners appear to be the original stock curved cuts.
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User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4924233
Given that the blue colouration seems to extend along the bottom edge and corner here is it possible that it could have been a small part of a much larger information label?

Should we be looking for something more like this? ImageImage
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User avatar
By mike_waclo
#4924236
Based on how closely that blue follows the kind of irregular cut around the corner of the label, I'm thinking that's not blue ink on the label itself, but rather a bit of chromatic aberration coming from the lens and/or camera sensor from the original photo. A similar effect can be seen in the image below...

Image
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By Coover5
#4924237
While I didn't know the fancy words to say it that's kinda what I was thinking. I know a little about photography and shiny stuff always messes with photos.
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User avatar
By RedSpecial
#4924271
I think you're on to a winner, following the tape drive computer route.
The theory that these could be what a lot of the parts came from definitely seems to pan out.

I haven't done much digging and I'm sure you already have a ton of interesting reference images of the tape drive units but after poking around for a while i found this while i was using the search term tape drive computer restoration.

A smaller tape drive, made by HP around 1971 which has some familiar parts.

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Its also mentioned that it has a capstan motor but unfortunately the video never shows the label and i haven't been able to find an image of one yet.

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Here's the video if for anyone who wants to have a look.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAsLwcq4RNU

I also found a restoration video for a larger drive, like the one mentioned above, but it appeared to be a later model with a different Vacuum system and didn't appear to have any of the parts we're looking for.
I'll keep digging around for images and videos of earlier units.
Hopefully it'll turn something up.
legend642 liked this

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