Magnetic Recording: The First 100 Years [Paperback]

Eric D. Daniel (Editor), C. Denis Mee (Editor), Mark H. Clark (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 17, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0780347099 | ISBN-13: 978-0780347090 | Edition: 1

"The first magnetic recording device was demonstrated and patented by the Danish inventor Valdemar Poulsen in 1898. Poulsen made a magnetic recording of his voice on a length of piano wire. MAGNETIC RECORDING traces the development of the watershed products and the technical breakthroughs in magnetic recording that took place during the century from Paulsen's experiment to today's ubiquitous audio, video, and data recording technologies including tape recorders, video cassette recorders, and computer hard drives.

An international author team brings a unique perspective, drawn from professional experience, to the history of magnetic recording applications. Their key insights shed light on how magnetic recording triumphed over all competing technologies and revolutionized the music, radio, television and computer industries. They also show how these developments offer opportunities for applications in the future.

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

Sponsored by:
IEEE Magnetics Society

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Electrical Engineering/History of Technology Magnetic Recording The First 100 Years The first magnetic recording device was demonstrated and patented by the Danish inventor Valdemar Poulsen in 1898. Poulsen made a magnetic recording of his voice on a length of piano wire. Magnetic Recording traces the development of the watershed products and the technical breakthroughs in magnetic recording that took place during the century from Poulsen’s experiment to today’s ubiquitous audio, video, and data recording technologies, including tape recorders, video cassette recorders, and computer hard drives. An international author team brings a unique perspective, drawn from professional experience, to the history of magnetic recording applications. Their key insights shed light on how magnetic recording triumphed over all competing technologies and revolutionized the music, radio, television, and computer industries. They also show how these developments offer opportunities for future applications. Magnetic Recording features 116 illustrations, including 92 photographs of historic magnetic recording machines and their inventors.

About the Author

About the Editors Eric D. Daniel has worked in magnetic recording since 1947. He worked ten years with the BBC Research Department, three years at the National Bureau of Standards, two years at Ampex, and twenty years at Memorex. As Director of Research at Memorex, Mr. Daniel worked on a wide variety of magnetic recording media, including computer, instrumentation, video and audio tape products, and rigid and flexible disks. In 1979 he was elected as a Fellow of Memorex, and in 1982 he retired from full-time employment.
Denis Mee worked on audio recording for five years at CBS Laboratories. He then worked thirty years at IBM where he specialized in advanced storage technologies, including magneto-optical storage, magnetic recording heads, media, and recording subsystems for computer rigid disks. In 1983 he was elected as an IBM Fellow, and in 1993 he retired from IBM. Dr. Mee continues to represent a consortium of companies supporting storage research at various universities.
Mark H. Clark is Assistant Professor of History in the Humanities and 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 the University of Aarhus, Denmark where he researched the life of Valdemar Poulsen.

Product Details

• Paperback: 370 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-IEEE Press; 1 edition (August 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0780347099
• ISBN-13: 978-0780347090
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,101,538 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth the cost, October 12, 2002

By 

Chris Sterling "Castle maven" (Annandale, VA USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Magnetic Recording: The First 100 Years (Paperback)

While surely not inexpensive for a paperback book, this is an important study---perhaps the best single volume relating the history of magnetic sound, video, and data recording methods over a century. Written by a number of Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) authorities, the 20 chapters provide clearly-written and well-illustrated (nearly 100 photos and a host of diagrams) accounts of the rise of various modes of recording. One need not be an engineer (I'm not!) to understand the discussions here.

Of special value is the pulling together of material on all of these methods in one place, allowing ready comparison of who did what and when. We learn about inventors, marketing, hardware, and the means of recording, allowing a clearer understanding of how later developments built upon earlier ones. Some of the principles of modern videocams, for example, have been known for decades.

Each chapter includes references to contemporary studies and more recent research, allowing the reader to pursue topics at greater length. In all, this is a valuable anthology of original research that sheds considerable light on a fascinating story.