For the first time the idea of recording sounds was expressed by the American engineer O. Smith. In 1888, he proposed to produce magnetic sound recording on a thread made of silk and woven steel veins. Unfortunately, the engineer did not create the device, but the idea formed the basis for the creation of modern tape recorders.
Instructions
Step 1
In 1898, a Danish engineer working for the Copenhagen Telephone Company took up this idea and patented the prototype of the modern tape recorder - the telegraph. The creator of the first working model for recording and reproducing voice was named V. Poulsen.
Step 2
The first telegraph model turned out to be cumbersome and not very easy to use. The engineer suggested using a piano string for magnetic recording, which he wound in one layer on a large drum. This design feature not only increased the size of the apparatus, but also did not allow for long-term recording (about 100 m of metal wire having d = 1 mm made it possible to record for 45 seconds). In the large size of the apparatus, the speed of the movement of the string also played a role, only 2.2 meters per second. Although the apparatus did not immediately acquire widespread use, it aroused great interest as a new direction in technology.
Step 3
The next impetus in the further development of these systems was its demonstration in 1900 in Paris at the World Exhibition. Poulsen's telegraph received the Grand Prix at the exhibition when it recorded the voice of the Austrian emperor (the first magnetic recording preserved to this day). The engineer was constantly refining his creation, he changed the wire to a steel tape already wound on spools, and also used a steel disc for recording for the first time.
Step 4
Gradually, the sound quality of the telegraph improved, its dimensions decreased, and it took the form of modern reel-to-reel tape recorders. But the metal tape was often torn, and there was a danger of injury during its movement. Therefore, in the West, tape systems were widely used not for musical recordings, but as a storage device on telephones (a prototype of modern answering machines) and as dictaphones.
Step 5
In Russia, sound recording systems began to be dealt with in 1932. Soviet engineer V. K. Viktorsky created the first Russian dictaphone and already in 1935 it was used in emergency services to record telephone conversations.
Step 6
It was only in 1934 that the tape recorder received widespread mass use. At this time, the German company BAFS began to produce magnetic tape, invented in 1927 by the scientist Pfeimer (in the USSR, it was patented two years earlier, but was not in demand). And again, the German company AEG began to produce studio apparatus for magnetic recordings, which were used in radio broadcasting stations.
Step 7
The Japanese company "Sony" in 1956 replaced the radio tubes in the tape recorder with transistors, which significantly reduced its size. In 1961 Dutch engineers from Philips developed and produced a cassette recorder. In all subsequent series, the appearance, layout and other details were changed.
