You really should get up some pictures. Your phone or $49 camera isn't really going to probably do it, throw these little gizmos on the flatbed scanner and set it to high resolution. Then crop it down so it's not ten gigabytes.

A couple years ago I got my hands on the print and a picture of this doodad, and actually it is cool as hell and a feat of engineering for it's time. I didn't realize it recorded that long, I was swept away by the compactness of it.

Have you actually taken the bearing apart yet ? There should be signs of what once was. I believe IIRC this thing was made in Germany right ? If so expect surprises.

Normally I would say it's a brass bearing and if it has a mount, turn it, but you seem to be talking about a rotating member.

I am having alot of trouble visualising it. That it backs up ? Like a one tape answering machine would ? Doesn't sound right. I am not quite getting it right now. If I had one in front of me that would be different I'm sure.

It is cool though to even have one of those things, is it older than you or not ? I have a scope that is older than me. You should take a ****load of pictures and throw them up on imageshack or dropbox or whatever. I bet a bunch of people would love to see the mechanics of that thing.