Automatic electric tape dispenser - GIF

[clavius]

What in the world would you ever use a strip of tape that short for other than tab marks in a book/

Lots of small assembly tasks call for short, uniform strips of tape.

I worked at a small company that made custom transformers and other wound magnetic components. Most of the coils were wound on manual winding machines (think of a lathe spindle with a pedal operated motor, wire was guided by hand onto a spinning coil form by the operators) and numerous short strips of tape used to secure the wire and insulating paper in place as the coil was wound. Automated dispensers like this were not common then (this was the mid 1980s) but would have been really useful for the coil winders.