Description
This article is from the Antique Radios
And Phonographs FAQ, by Hank van Cleef vancleef@netcom with
numerous contributions by others.
44 When was magnetic recording introduced?...
...I keep hearing about
"tapes" that were made in the 1930's.
You can rest assured that anything involved with home entertainment
was not recorded on magnetic media until the 1947-8 period, and not
regularly used for broadcast purposes until around 1952. While
magnetic recording, using a magnetic wire, was invented by a Dane,
Poulsen, in 1898, the need for a bias to overcome hysteresis distortion
was not recognized until the 1930's. Magnetic recording was used for
military purposes during WWII, which the Germans being the leaders
through much of the period. Wire technology became commercially
available in 1946, using a magnetic steel alloy (fortunately, corrosion
resistant) wire. Formulations for placing magnetic materials on tape
reliably were not available until around 1948, and reel-to-reel tape
only became common around 1951, replacing wire.
The method for getting response above 10Khz. in early magnetic
recorders was simple: move the medium quickly. Webster-Chicago wire
recorders move the wire at about 25 inches per second. Early tape
units operated at 15 IPS.
Worth noting that magnetic recording is not discussed at all in the
Radiotron Designer's Handbook, 4th edition (1952).
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