Xref: utzoo misc.wanted:10341 sci.electronics:12968 rec.audio:22971 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!crdgw1!ge-dab!tarpit!bilver!bill From: bill@bilver.UUCP (Bill Vermillion) Newsgroups: misc.wanted,sci.electronics,rec.audio Subject: Re: Magnetic Wire Recorders Message-ID: <825@bilver.UUCP> Date: 19 Jul 90 17:21:20 GMT References: <1990Jul14.044030.6001@swbatl.sbc.com> Reply-To: bill@bilver.UUCP (Bill Vermillion) Organization: W. J. Vermillion, Winter Park, FL Lines: 80 In article <1990Jul14.044030.6001@swbatl.sbc.com> adams@swbatl.sbc.com (Tom Adams - 235-7459) writes: >I'm looking for information about magnetic wire recorders. >I'm also curious about the history of this technology. > >Is anyone aware of any controversy on the subject? No controversy - just a pain. My first recorder was a Webster Chicago unit. (I went to retreive it several years ago and found my mother had given it away - argh!). Wire was able to store more recording in a given space with higher quality than competing tape technology. A 1 hour spool was about 2.5 inches across and 1" high. The problems were if you dropped it, or it came unspooled. Ever see a fishing reel that got tangled. Picture the same mess with very fine stainless wire. Splicing was a pain. I was in the studio one day years ago when another studio engineer said wire's main problem was you couldn't edit it. I said to him " Gee, I wish I'd had know that years ago before I edited all those wires. I wouldn't have tried it." To edit (more like assemble) you tie the wire in a square knot and trim the ends with a scissors. They pop going across the head. The bigger problem is that the wire will twist axially, and it will not be presented to the record/play head in the same orientation as it was recorded. Because of this the highest frequencies aren't always retreived properly. However it was better in the late '40's than the competing tapes. In about 1961, when I was working at KXLY in Spokane WA, we came across a couple of reels of tape for the Brush SoundMirror. These tapes were originally shipped on 8mm film reels. They were paper tape with a black oxide coating. We adjusted one of our Ampex 350's to be flat out to 15k for the tape we were using , probably 111 at that time. We then tried the old tape. Best we could get out of it was a little over 5k. I don't remember whethere that was 7.5ips or 15 ips at that time. The rule of thumb in the mid-50's was 1kHz (but in those days we called it cps!) per 1"/sec of tape speed. Many early recording were done at 30 ips to get extended response. When the NAB curves were introduced, 15 ips became the standard mastering speed. Wire was used quite extensively before tape was perfected. I remember working at my first radio job in 1958, and the transmitter site had several spools of military surplus wire. Whether these dated to the war years, or just from the late 40's I don't know. Wire was good for it's day. The only medium that was competing on noise and quality was metal tape. Not metal tape as we know it today, being metal on a plastic carrier, but metal strips. Imagine a VERY long measuring tape. Imagine a very heavy turntable supporting the tapes. Imagine more than 100 pounds to record an hour. >The National Inventors Hall of Fame apparently credits Marvin Camras >with inventing wire recorders in the 1930's, while "Magnetic Recording", >by S.J. Begun, 1949, Rhinehart, credits Vladimir Poulsen with inventing >a wire recorder called the Telegraphone in the late 1890's [!]. >I'd also be very interested in hearing from folks who have wire >recorders (or want to get rid of one) or pointers to more books and >articles. The Begun book has bibliography I'll share with anyone >interested. Camras just wrote another book about 2 years ago called "Magnetic Recording" - and if you want to know ANYTHING at all regarding Magnetic recording that's the book to get. Aboug $85.00. Addison Wesley if I remember. Camras was also instrumental in developing the accicular magnetic particles for tape while he was working at either Armour Research or 3M. That is the type of coating still in use today. -- Bill Vermillion - UUCP: uunet!tarpit!bilver!bill : bill@bilver.UUCP