The Western Electric Bathtub

 

I believe this photo was of the first public demonstration of the German AEG Magnetophon audio tape recorder, at the 1947 AES Convention in San Francisco. This Magnetophon, as captured by the U.S. Signal Corps. and brought back to the U.S. as a spoil of war, was demonstrated at this AES convention by Jack Mullin, the engineer who brought the Magnetophon to the U.S. Mullin was closely associated with Ampex during their early years, and he can be seen in the left of the image.