Dictaphone was an American company founded by Alexander Graham Bell that produced dictation machines. It is now a division of Nuance Communications based in Massachusetts. Although the name "Dictaphone" is a trademark, it has become genericized as a means to refer to any dictation machine; the Volta Laboratory was established by Alexander Graham Bell in Washington, D. C. in 1881. When the Laboratory's sound recording inventions were sufficiently developed with the assistance of Charles Sumner Tainter and others and his associates created the Volta Graphophone Company, which merged with the American Graphophone Company, which itself evolved into Columbia Records; the name "Dictaphone" was trademarked by the Columbia Graphophone Company in 1907, which soon became the leading manufacturer of such devices. This perpetuated the use of wax cylinders for voice recording, which had otherwise been eclipsed by disc-based technology. Dictaphone was spun off into a separate company in 1923 under the leadership of C. King Woodbridge.

In 1947, having relied on wax-cylinder recording to the end of World War II, Dictaphone introduced its Dictabelt technology. This cut a mechanical groove into a Lexan plastic belt instead of a wax cylinder; the advantage of the Lexan belt was that recordings were admissible in court. IBM introduced a dictating machine using an erasable belt made of magnetic tape which enabled the user to correct dictation errors rather than marking errors on a paper tab. Dictaphone in turn added magnetic recording models while still selling the models recording on the Lexan belts. Machines based on magnetic tape recording were introduced in the late seventies using the standard compact cassette, but soon, in dictation machines, using mini-cassettes or microcassettes instead; the size of the cassette was important as it enabled the manufacturer to reduce the size of portable recorders. Walter D. Fuller became the director of the company in 1952. In 1969 he was appointed as chairman. In Japan, JVC was licensed to produce machines developed by Dictaphone.

Dictaphone and JVC developed the picocassette, released in 1985, smaller than a microcassette but retained a good recording quality and duration. Dictaphone developed "endless loop" recording using magnetic tape, introduced in the mid-seventies as the "Thought Tank"; the recording medium did not need to be moved from where the dictation took place to the location such as a typing pool where the typists were located. This was operated via a dedicated in house telephone system enabling dictation to be made from a variety of locations within the hospital or other organizations with typing pools. One version calculated each typist's turnaround time and allocated the next piece of dictation accordingly. Dictaphone was prominent in the provision of multi-channel recorders, used extensively in the emergency services to record emergency telephone calls and subsequent conversations. In the 1980s these recorders started to be used in the financial industry to record conversations in dealing rooms; the recordings could be located and replayed by date and time.

By the late 1980s digital recording began to be offered as an alternative, soon became the medium of choice. Additionally, Dictaphone at one point expanded its product line to market a line of electronic calculators. In 1979, Dictaphone was purchased by Pitney Bowes and kept as a wholly owned but independent subsidiary. Dictaphone bought Dual Display Word Processor, a stiff competitor to Wang Laboratories, the industry leader. In 1982 it marketed a word processor from Symantec; the hardware sold for $5,950 in 1982. The software was an additional $600; the advent of the personal computer, MS-DOS, general-purpose word-processing software saw the demise of the dedicated word-processor, the division was closed. In 1995, Pitney Bowes sold Dictaphone to the investment group Stonington Partners of Connecticut for a reported $462 million. Dictaphone thereafter sold a range of products that included speech recognition and voicemail software with limited success as the market only existed among some early adopters despite its vertical markets' enhancements.

In 2000, Dictaphone was acquired by the then-leading Belgian voice-recognition and translation company Lernout & Hauspie for nearly $1 billion. Lernout & Hauspie provided the voice-recognition technology for Dictaphone's enhanced voice recognition-based transcription system. Soon after the purchase, the SEC raised questions about Lernout & Hauspie's finances, focusing on the skyrocketing income reported from its East Asian endeavors. Subsequently, the company and all its subsidiaries, including Dictaphone, were forced into bankruptcy protection. In early 2002, Dictaphone emerged from bankruptcy as a held organization, with Rob Schwager as its chairman and CEO. In 2004, it was split into three divisions: IHS, focusing on dictation for the healthcare and medical industries. In June 2005, Dictaphone sold its Communications Recording Solutions to NICE Systems for $38.5 million. This was considered a great bargain in the industry and came after NICE was ordered to pay Dictaphone $10 million in settlements related to a patent infringement suit in late 2003.

In September 2005, Dictaphone sold its IVS business outside the United States to a private Swiss group around its former VP Martin Niederberger, who formed Dictaphone IVS AG in Urdorf and developed "FRISB

Duncan Tonatiuh is a Mexican-American author and illustrator of several award-winning children’s books. The illustrations in his books are influenced by Pre-Columbian art; the themes in his stories relate to the Latino experience, with subjects that include social justice issues, art and immigration. He is an activist for workers' rights, he was born to an American father and a Mexican mother and was raised in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. He moved to the United States as a teenager and completed high school at Buxton School in Massachusetts; as a child, he was inspired by comics and anime to illustrate his own superhero stories. In high school, he became interested in painting, finding inspiration in the works of Vincent Van Gogh and Egon Schiele. In 2008, Tonatiuh received his B. F. A. from Parsons School of Design in Manhattan and a B. A. from Eugene Lang College. While in college, he became interested in Mixtec artwork Mixtec codex, his senior thesis, Journey of a Mixteco, was published online.

After graduating, he was contracted by Abrams Books for Young Children, publishing his first book Dear Primo in 2010. He divides his time between Mexico and the U. S. visiting schools and bookstores. He is a workers’ rights activist. Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin 2011 Pura Belpré Medal – honor for illustration 2011 Américas Award Commendation Diego Rivera: His World and Ours 2012 Pura Belpré Medal winner for illustration 2012 Tomás Rivera Mexican-American Children's Book AwardPancho Rabbit and the Coyote: A Migrant's Tale 2014 Pura Belpré Medal – honor for illustration 2014 Pura Belpré Medal – honor for narrative 2014 Tomás Rivera Mexican-American Children's Book Award 2014 Américas Award Honor Separate is Never equal: Sylvia Méndez & Her Family's Fight for Desegregation 2015 Pura Belpré Medal – honor for illustration 2015 Tomás Rivera Mexican-American Children's Book Award 2015 Jane Addams Award 2015 Robert F. Sibert Informational Books Medal 2015 Américas Award 2015 Carter G. Woodson Book AwardFunny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras 2015 New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books 2016 Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Medal 2016 Tomás Rivera Mexican-American Children's Book Award 2016 Pura Belpré Medal – honor for illustration 2016 Américas Award Honor Salsa: Un poema para cocinar / A Cooking Poem 2016 Américas Award Commendation Esquivel: Space-Age Sound Artist 2017 Pura Belpré Medal – honor for illustration The Princess and the Warrior 2017 Pura Belpré Medal – honor for illustration 2017 Américas Award Commendation 2017 Charlotte Zolotow Award Commendation Danza!: Amalia Hernández and el Ballet Folklórico de México 2018 Américas Award Undocumented: A Worker’s Fight 2019 Américas Award Soldier for Equality: José de la Luz Sáenz and the Great War 2020 Pura Belpré Medal – honor for author Dear Primo: A Letter To My Cousin, Abrams Books for Young Readers 2010.

Diego Rivera: His World and Ours, Abrams Books for Young Readers 2011. Pancho Rabbit and the Coyote: A Migrant's Tale, Abrams Books for Young Readers 2013. Separate is never equal: Sylvia Méndez & Her Family's Fight for Desegregation, Abrams Books for Young Readers 2014. Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras, Abrams Books for Young Readers 2015; the Princess and the Warrior: A Tale of Two Volcanoes, Abrams Books for Young Readers 2016. Soldier for Equality: José de la Luz Sáenz and the Great War, Abrams Books for Young Readers 2019. Salsa: Un poema para cocinar / A Cooking Poem written by Jorge Argueta, Groundwood Books/House of Anansi Press 2015. Esquivel! Space-Age Sound Artist written by Susan Wood, Charlesbridge 2016. Http://www.duncantonatiuh.com/

National Railway Chiba Motive Power Union is a Japanese trade union, referred to as Doro-Chiba. It has been referred to as the Chiba Motormen's Union in English, it split from the National Railway Motive Power Union in 1979. Doro split from the National Railway Workers' Union in 1951, was considered to be more left-leaning, it was a major union, along with Kokuro, representing workers who worked for Japanese National Railways. In 1979, the Chiba Prefecture chapter of Doro split off to form an independent union, which became known as Doro-Chiba, it split off after its executive committee members had been expelled from Doro because of their support for Sanrizuka-Shibayama Union to Oppose the Airport. As of 1985, the union had 1,100 members, on November 28, 1985, it staged a strike to protest against the plans of the Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone's government to privatize JNR and lay off workers; the government condemned the strike, as government workers in Japan are forbidden to strike. In addition there were a number of acts of sabotage and vandalism that stranded 10 million commuters in Tokyo and 200,000 in Osaka.

The 24-hour strike caused 135 trains between Tokyo and Chiba prefecture to be cancelled, JNR's management decided to fire more than 100 workers for staging the illegal walkout. In addition to the Doro-Chiba strike, a substantial amount of sabotage was done by the then-1,300 member strong radical leftist group Middle Core Faction, who claimed responsibility and said their actions were to support Doro-Chiba's strike. Communications lines were cut, fires were set at 27 locations in seven prefectures, heavy damage was done to Asakusabashi Station in Tokyo around 7 a.m. by masked figures wearing helmets and throwing firebombs. No injuries were reported. Police raided offices of the Middle Core Faction and Doro-Chiba, damage to bullet trail lines near Hiroshima that delayed trains between Tokyo and Kyushu appeared to have been caused by a time bomb and by noon 48 people were arrested, including leaders of the Middle Core Faction. Representatives of the larger Kokuro and Doro unions representing JNR workers condemned the "anti-social" attacks and apologized to commuters.

According to sources inside the labor movement, Doro-Chiba was controlled by the Middle Core Faction. Doro-Chiba Union Chairman Hiroshi Nakano issued a statement saying that: "The attacks have nothing to do with the union." Of the 48 suspects arrested, 46 were from the Middle Core Faction and two were from the National Railway Workers' Union. Two of the suspects were released. After JNR was privatized in 1987, 1,047 workers were laid off. Unions including Kokuro and Doro-Chiba waged a two-decade struggle for reinstatement of the workers. A ¥20 billion settlement was paid in 2010 to 904 plaintiffs, but without the workers being reinstated. Doro-Chiba had nine members who were not employed by JR after the privatization in 1987 and the union refused to accept the 2010 settlement, it vowed to continue the struggle against the dismissals and against the privatization of JNR. Official website