Magnetic Recording: The First 100 Years

Front Cover
Eric D. Daniel, C. Denis Mee, Mark H. Clark
John Wiley & Sons, Aug 31, 1998 - Technology & Engineering - 370 pages
"The first magnetic recording device was demonstrated and patentedby the Danish inventor Valdemar Poulsen in 1898. Poulsen made amagnetic recording of his voice on a length of piano wire. MAGNETICRECORDING traces the development of the watershed products and thetechnical breakthroughs in magnetic recording that took placeduring the century from Paulsen's experiment to today's ubiquitousaudio, video, and data recording technologies including taperecorders, video cassette recorders, and computer harddrives.

An international author team brings a unique perspective, drawnfrom professional experience, to the history of magnetic recordingapplications. Their key insights shed light on how magneticrecording triumphed over all competing technologies andrevolutionized the music, radio, television and computerindustries. They also show how these developments offeropportunities for applications in the future.

MAGNETIC RECORDING features 116 illustrations, including 92photographs of historic magnetic recording machines and theirinventors."

Sponsored by:
IEEE Magnetics Society

From inside the book

Contents

AUDIO RECORDING
6
The Telegraphone
15
Steel Tape and Wire Recorders
30
References
45
The Magnetophon Goes into Production
58
Wartime Developments
65
Building on the Magnetophon
72
Product Diversification
92
A Broadcast Video Recorder for Electronic News Gathering
177
Digital Video Recording
201
Composite Video Digital Recording
210
Capturing Data Magnetically
221
Data Storage on Drums
237
Data Storage on Tape
252
Data Storage on Hard Magnetic Disks
270
LowMass Lightly Loaded Sliders
287

The History of Digital Audio
110
VIDEO RECORDING
124
The First BroadcastQuality Magnetic Video Recorder
130
References
136
The Ampex Quadruplex Recorders
153
HelicalScan Recorders for Broadcasting
170
Magnetoresistive Read Heads ThinFilm Disks and PRML Channels
294
Data Storage on Floppy Disks
300
Instrumentation Recording on Magnetic Tape
316
About the Editors 341
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (1998)

About the Editors Eric D. Daniel has worked in magnetic recordingsince 1947. He worked ten years with the BBC Research Department,three years at the National Bureau of Standards, two years atAmpex, and twenty years at Memorex. As Director of Research atMemorex, Mr. Daniel worked on a wide variety of magnetic recordingmedia, including computer, instrumentation, video and audio tapeproducts, and rigid and flexible disks. In 1979 he was elected as aFellow of Memorex, and in 1982 he retired from full-timeemployment.
Denis Mee worked on audio recording for five years at CBSLaboratories. He then worked thirty years at IBM where hespecialized in advanced storage technologies, includingmagneto-optical storage, magnetic recording heads, media, andrecording subsystems for computer rigid disks. In 1983 he waselected as an IBM Fellow, and in 1993 he retired from IBM. Dr. Meecontinues to represent a consortium of companies supporting storageresearch at various universities.
Mark H. Clark is Assistant Professor of History in the Humanitiesand Social Sciences Department at Oregon Institute of Technology.An authority on the early history of audio magnetic recording, Dr.Clark spent the summer of 1996 as a Fulbright Professor at theUniversity of Aarhus, Denmark where he researched the life ofValdemar Poulsen.

Bibliographic information