Adventures in CyberSound

A Chronology of Magnetic Recording

by David Morton

1878 - Inspired by a visit to Edison's laboratories in Menlo Park, New Jersey,

a prominent American mechanical engineer named Oberlin Smith conceived the
idea of recording the electrical signals produced by the telephone onto a
steel wire. He files a patent caveat but not a formal patent.
1888 - Oberlin Smith, deciding that he will not pursue his idea, "donates" it
to the public by publishing his ideas about magnetic recording in the journal
'Electrical World'.
1889 - Danish inventor Valdemar Poulsen re-discovers ( perhaps after seeing
Smith's article or the Tainter patents ) the principle of magnetic recording.
Over the course of the next few years he produces practical sound recorders
for steel wire and tape. He takes patents in Denmark, the United States, and
elsewhere and attempts to sell his patent rights to investors. The machine,
called the Telegraphone utilises a steel wire wound helically on a cylinder
rotating under an electromagnet connected to a carbon microphone or an
earphone. It is described as a device to record telephone messages in the
absence the called party.
1900 - Poulsen's first major demonstration of the Telegraphone takes place at
the Paris International Exhibition of 1900. The Telegraphone is desribed in
glowing terms by the technical and scientific press as superior to the
phonograph and a great advance in physics as well.
1903 - The American Telegraphone Company formed in Washington, D.C., to
manufacture the Tele graphone. A manufacturing facility in Wheeling, West
Virginia set up to make the machines, and the company makes a large public
stock offering. American Telegraphone creates several distributorships across
the country to handle service and sales. Telegraphone publicity over the next
decade or so promotes the various models of the machine as a dictation system
and an automatic telephone recorder.
1910 - American Telegraphone, failing because of bad management and production
problems, moves production to Springfield, Mass.
1911 - Lee DeForest, then working for the Federal Telegraph Company, is asked
to develop an amplifier to allow the recording of high-speed radio telegraph
messages received on a type of receiver called the Tikker. Deforest uses his
Audion tube, invented in 1907, to make his first practical electronic

amplifier. DeForest later tries to apply the amplifier and Telegraphone to the
making of motion picture soundtracks, but the work does not result in a
practical system.
1918 - American Telegraphone enters receivership after having sold only a few
hundred machines. The company remains in existence until 1944 when it is
finally disolved.
Early 1920s - German inventor/entrepreneur Curt Stille modifies the
Telegraphone to use electronic amplification and markets the patent rights to
the device, a wire recorder, to German and British companies.
1925 - Stille and another German, Karl Bauer ( a licensee of the Stille wire
recorder patents ), market an improved wire recorder telephone
answering/dictation machine called the Dailygraph. The machine was
manufactured by the Vox company, a lso of Germany. Later versions of the
Dailygraph include provisions for a cartridge, apparently the first use of a
cartridge-loaded medium.
c. 1928-29 - A British motion picture production company, Ludwig Blattner
Picture Corporation, takes a license to manfacture Stille technology. The firm
unsuccessfully tries to make and distribute movies with a synchronized
soundtrack on wire. Later machines, modified by Blattner, use steel tape
instead of wire.
Radio could be recorded from the late 1920's on machines like the huge
Blattnerphone, or the Marconi-Stille. The sound was recorded magnetically on
rapidly-spinning reels of steel wire. Editing could only happen with the aid
of wire cutters and welding equipment, so the machines were only really used
to record broadcasts for later repeats. So expensive were the machines that
wire was often re-used, rather than kept for archiving.
Source: http://ftp.bbc.co.uk/radio4/drama/techie.html
1930 - Bell Telephone Laboratories initiates a major research effort in
magnetic tape recording under the direction of Clarence N. Hickman. By 1931,
prototypes or designs are completed for a steel tape telephone answering
machine, a central-office message announcer, an endless loop voice-training
machine, and a portable, reel-to-reel recorder for general purpose sound
recording. None of these enter production. AT&T's official policy on telephone
recorders is that they will not be allowed on public telephone lines.
The German, Stille, and Marconi form the Marconi-Stille Company which builds
the first steel band recorders for the BBC: the specifications are the
following: width 3mm (1/8"), thickness: 80 cm (3x10-3 mil), speed: 1.5 m/s (60
ips), mass of a full reel: 25 kg (55 lbs); fairly dangerous use (risk of deep
cuts).

1931-32 - Blattner sells an experimental steel tape recorder to the BBC

but goes bankrupt the same year. Meanwhile, the British Marconi Wireless
Telegraph Company purchases the U.K. rights to the Stille patents. The BBC and
Marconi jointly produce several steel tape recorders and introduce them to BBC
Empire service by 1932. Similar steel tape recorders are used in radio service
in Canada, Australia, France, Egypt, Sweden, and Poland. Because the machines
depend on a special steel tape made in Sweden, supplies are threatened when
World War II begins.
AEG, a large German electrical manufacturer, purchases the patent rights of
the independent inventor Fritz Pfleumer, who after 1928 patented a system for
recording on paper coated with a magnetizable, powdered steel layer. AEG sets
about designing a tape recorder, while it collaborates with the German
chemical firm I.G.Farben to develop a suitable tape. I.G.Farben experiments
with tape coated with carbonyl iron powder, made under a proprietary process
and used in inductor cores.
c.1933-35 - Echophon company, another licensee of the Stille patents, develops
the Textophon, a dictation machine using steel wire. Echophon is later
purchased by ITT and made part of the subsidiary firm C. Lorenz, a
manufacturer of telephone equipment. C. Lorenz, with the help of engineer Semi
J. Begun, later markets a steel tape recorder that finds wide use in European
telephone authorities for telephone recording purposes and by German radio
networks for mobile recording.
1935 - An improved AEG recorder, dubbed the "Magnetophon", is demonstrated by
recording the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The RRG ( the German radio
authority ) begins to use the Magnetophon for broadcasting, replacing the
earlier C. Lorenz recorders.
1938 - S.J. Begun of C. Lorenz leaves Germany to start a new career in the
United States. In 1939 he takes a job at the Brush Development Company of
Cleveland, Ohio.
1939-44 - Sales of Magnetophons total 379 units. That figure rises to 937 by
1943-44.
1939-45 - At the Brush Development Company, S. J. Begun develops steel tape
and coated-paper tape recorders. Between 1942 and 1945 the company designs and
successfully sells to the military various types of recorders utilizing plated
media in the form of tapes, disks, and wire.
1941Weber and Von Braunmuhl from AEG develop the high frequency biasing: the
improvement is decisive and the "Magnetophon" becomes a machine of excellent
quality.

1945 - The Armour Research Foundation of the Armour Institute of

Technology invents an improved wire recorder. The Institute succeeds in
selling several thousand to the American army and navy, and after the war
sells licenses to dozens of American and European manufacturers to make wire
recorders.
American and British technical investigators "discover" the Magnetophon in
Luxembourg, France, and other places formerly occupied by the Germans. By
Spring, these investigators begin gathering information about the production
of tape recorders and tape, and the information is published by the U.S.
Department of Commerce. German patent rights on the technology are seized by
the U.S. Alien Property Custodian.
Former serviceman John T. Mullin demonstrates a captured Magnetophon to the
Institute of Radio Engineers. Performer Bing Crosby works with Mullin to use
the Magnetophon for radio broadcasts on ABC.
Three former Armour Research Foundations employees start Magnecord Corporation
in Chicago to make a high quality wire recorder. Plans for the wire recorder
are soon dropped, and the group in 1949 introduces a tape recorder, the PT-6.
The corporate life of Magnecord ends in 1957 when it is purchased by
Midwestern Instruments, Inc.
1946-47 - The first Amour Research Foundation- licensed wire recorders appear
in the American market, manufactured by Pentron, Pierce Wire Recorder company,
and others. Brush Development company introduces its Soundmirror paper tape
recorder developed in 1939-40. A Brush licensee, Amplifier Corp. of America,
introduces the Magnephone tape recorder.
Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing ( later 3M Corp. ) introduces a line of
sound recording tapes, including type #100, a paper based tape, and type #110,
a plastic based tape. Type #111, a plastic based tape with an improved oxide,
becomes the industry standard.
1947 - Rangertone Inc., of New Jersey introduces a professional tape recorder
based on the Magnetophon.
1948 - Ampex corporation, using Armour Research Foundation and German
expertise and designs, produces its first professional tape recorder, the
Model 200.
1949-50 - Magnecord introduces two-channel tape recorders, and begins making
stereo recordings of music for demonstration purposes.
1948-49 - Sony Corporation begins its efforts to design a tape recorder.

1950 - The first catalog of recorded music on tape appears in the United
States. It is offered by Recording Associates company.
1951 - Bing Crosby Enterprises, the research team funded by Crosby and headed
by engineer John Mullin, demonstrate a crude video recording system.
1956 - Ampex Corporation demonstrates its first video recorder, the VR1000.
The machine, which recorded only monodchrome signals takes the industry by a
storm and quickly becomes the standard.
On November 30, the first videotaped material on a TV show airs. It is
"Douglas Edwards and the News" on CBS.
1957 - Price of first commercial blank video tape offered by the 3M Corp.
listed as $307 per reel.
1958 - The same year that stereo LP's appear on the RCA-Victor label, RCA
introduces stereo tape, in a cartridge format requiring a special player. The
system flops almost immediately, though its production continues by a
licensee, Bell Sound, until 1964.
1962-64 - Phillips company of the Netherlands introduces the Compact Cassette,
a portable tape recorder using a small cartridge.
1965 - Ford and Mercury, in conjunction with Motorola and RCA-Victor records,
introduce the "Stereo-8" (or "eight track" ) format tape players as an option
on certain luxury models. The medium becomes the first truly successful form
of recorded music on tape in the consumer market. 8-track tapes discontinued
around 1980.
1969-70 - DuPont and BASF begin offering chromium dioxide recording tapes.
1970 - Sony introduces the U-Matic videotape recorder. The format does not
succeed well as a consumer product, but achieves great success in schools and
television stations.
1975 - Sony introduces the Betamax home video system. By using a convenient
cartridge and offering the product at a low cost, Beta quickly takes off.
1976- Panasonic and JVC introduce a competitor to Betamax, the Video Home
System ( VHS ) system.
1978 - Sony introduces the first digital recorders. These were professional,
open reel PCM recorders for the studio.

1984 - Sales of recorded compact cassettes (audio cassettes) exceed LP sales

for the first time.
Sources:
http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~dmorton/mrchrono.html
http://www.canorus.com/evercloser/nagra/Profile.html
http://ftp.bbc.co.uk/radio4/drama/techie.html