A VERY odd Vintage "Tape" recorder?? has anyone seen anything like this??

Ok the machine has arrived. more pics and a vid to follow but....IT IS PAPER MAGNETIC TAPE!!! 2" wide paper tape. it records/plays 24 tracks bi-directionally one track at a time.
you pull the head all the way up, start the machine. the tape moves one direction, then the head advances down at the end of the tape. and the tape changes directions. gets to the end, advances down another track and repeats.

The tubes are dated 1952 but they could have been changed. has one 6J7, 12AX7, 6BQ5 and a 6X4 rectifier.
 
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it has a tone control yes. and a microphone input. I have not applied power yet. It has a dead 6BQ5 tube and i need to replace all the capacitors in it before i even attempt to power it up. I just think it has to be for voice recording. the way its designed to sit on a desk top like that. but itdoesnt have any sort of remote control start/stop. but the switch on top left i THINK is a motor start/stop switch as the tone control has a power on off switch attached as you turn it. so i think the top switch is a motor switch
 
Life got sidetracked a little bit. I sold my company, went back to work and built new benches for the shop and moved things around so i would have more room. things are finally settling down a bit and I will get back to this.
BUT! I did order all the parts to recap the unit and I was able to acquire a roll of 2" non back coated Soundscriber tape to use for testing to make sure it is running correctly before i attempt the fragile papertape.
I also acqured a German Tonschreiber and a Berlant concertone and a RCA Rt-21A deck in the middle of all that mess so things have been chaoitic to say the lest. back to it very soon!


Zc
 
How much time the reel takes to travel from one end to the other for a single track? If it gives a total recording length of nearly 24 hours, then it could be a espionage gadget. Conceal a microphone in a room , run the connection away to some place where this machine is hidden.

Regards,