GPO ANSWERING SET No 1A, 1970's

British Telecom and the GPO leased and Rented this unit, which answered calls with a personally recorded message.
Unfortunately no callers message could be recorded. This unit is marked BT.

Your comments:

• Apparatus were rented not leased, as the GPO retained ownership.
  .......... Peter Milner, near Newmarket, 11th of September 2017
  
  
• As BT did not come into existence until 1983 the unit was used by the General Post Office which in 1967 became Post Office Telephones.
  .......... Michael Seymour, Colchester UK, 2nd of March 2014
  
  
• I was a young Linesman sent to repair a bank of these at the Ministry of Agriculture. The unit had a length of tape, not on spools, just folded up inside. It used a single head with a tape having a thin transparent window near the end. The light from A small bulb would shine through onto a photo-cell when it reached the end of the tape.
  Unfortunately if the Bulb failed, the unit wound not stop
  .......... Iain Wingate, Gloucester, 16th of December 2011
  
  
• As a Linesman I came across these machines the first were valve operated and the later versions were transistor operated. We had a local weather Forecast provided by the met office at RAF St Mawgan it was recorded on a slighty elongated tape on a 1a, the tape used to get quite tatty with the heavy usage and had to be changed quite often the replacement tapes being made up locally.
  .......... R Killen, St Stephens,St Austell,Cornwall., 9th of December 2011
  
  

A0035