Magnetic-tape guide arrangement for a cassette and a magnetic-tape cassette apparatus

A magnetic-tape cassette for use with a magnetic-tape cassette apparatus comprising tape-extraction means which, when a cassette is in position on the apparatus, are operable to draw a loop of tape from the cassette for cooperation with a magnetic head or heads on the apparatus, the cassette comprising a housing having two parallel major walls and two side walls and a rear wall which extend between the major walls at the peripheries thereof, two reel hubs which are rotatable in the housing about axes perpendicular to the major walls of the housing and which carry a magnetic tape, the tape being secured at its ends to the hubs and being unwound from one hub and wound onto the other hub in the operation of the cassette apparatus, two apertures in the front of the housing through which the tape leaves and re-enters the housing while travelling from one reel hub to the other, two tape supports each of which defines a part of the boundary of an associated one of said apertures and which, when the cassette is not in use, support a portion of the tape that extends across the front of the housing externally thereof between said apertures, the tape inside the housing then extending directly between each tape support and an associated one of the reel hubs, and a recess formed in the front of the housing between said apertures to permit the tape-extraction means of the cassette apparatus, when the cassette is in position on the apparatus, to engage behind said portion of the tape that extends across the front of the housing, the recess being formed by a recess or recesses in the front edge or edges of one or both of the major walls of the housing and being bounded by a wall which extends between said major walls and which has two side portions and an intermediate portion extending between the side portions, each of these side wall portions and the adjacent side wall of the housing bounding a passage in the housing through which the tape passes and which terminates in a respective one of the apertures, characterized in that each of said tape supports is formed integrally with an associated one of said side wall portions at the end thereof which is remote from said intermediate wall portion, and each of said apertures is bounded on one side by the respective tape support and on the opposite side by the front end of the adjacent side wall of the housing, and in that a first plane which is tangential to one of the reel hubs on the side thereof remote from the other reel hub and which touches the tape support associated with said one of the reel hubs, and a second plane which is tangential to the outermost turn of the roll of tape on said one of the reel hubs on the side of the roll remote from the other reel hub when the tape is wound fully onto said one of the reel hubs and which touches the front end of the side wall of the housing which is adjacent said one of the reel hubs, intersect one another outside the housing at the front thereof, and a third plane which is tangential to said other reel hub on the side thereof remote from said one of the reel hubs and touches the tape support associated with said other reel hub, and a fourth plane which is tangential to the outermost turn of the roll of tape on said other reel hub on the side of the roll remote from said one of the reel hubs when the tape is wound fully onto said other reel hub and which touches the front end of the side wall of the housing which is adjacent said other reel hub, intersect one another outside the housing at the front thereof.