By using rolling drums, belts, wheels,
perforated tape and typewriter-like output methods, were the first truly mechanical translation devices (Freigang 2001).
Other media, such as photographic prints and negatives, sound recordings, videotapes and computer tapes, disks, cards, and
perforated tape, present comparable problems because of the chemical instability or fragility of materials ranging from glass plates and nitrate films to acetate tapes and oxide coatings on tapes.