Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!apple!bionet!uwm.edu!spool.mu.edu!news.cs.indiana.edu!cs.widener.edu!dsinc!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: bilver!bill@uunet.uu.net (Bill Vermillion) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Early Color Television Message-ID: Date: 28 Feb 91 18:50:18 GMT Sender: news@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Mr. News) Organization: W. J. Vermillion - Winter Park, FL Lines: 66 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 169, Message 3 of 5 Originator: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Nntp-Posting-Host: hub.eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu In article streeter@athena.cs.uga.edu (Tom Streeter) writes: > In article bilver!bill@uunet.uu.net > (Bill Vermillion) writes: >> There were NO commercial video tape machines available before about >> 1961. > Two corrections: > As for VTRs, Ampex rolled out its first machine at the NAB convention > in 1953. CBS bought the first for something in the neighborhood of > $100,000. They may have shown that early, but none were availaale until about 1960 on a commerical basis. > Bing Crosby was a major force behind the invention because > he hated doing his show live on the West Coast and having it sent on > kine to the East. I was recently digging through old copies of > "Broadcasting" and came across an article describing how the first > machines would work. At the time this article was written, Ampex had > not yet been chosen as the manufacturer. Right man, Crosby, but the wrong machine. Crosby was instrumental in the development of the first AUDIO tape recorder. He would broadcast a RADIO program for the east coast, and then re-do it live for the west coast three hours later. The 16" transcription format was not up to his standards. He funded a lot of research into that market. Memory is just a bit hazy here, but I seem to remember the company was called "Crosby Associates". There was an old Russian Inventor/Researcher named Alexander M. Poiniatoff (sp?) who was working on the same thing. He founded a company that used the initials of his name A.M.P and added EX for "Execellance" and called the company AMPEX. I believe Crosby merged with them. In those days the disk recorder manufacturers were also moving into audio tape machines. I have seen reel to reel machines from Presto and RCA. Scully came along much later. I don't have to dig through old magazines for that stuff. As a kid I was fascinated by audio, having first heard my voice recorded on an home disk recorder with paper based acetate discs in the mid-40s. I watched the equipment development and wanted a recorder of my own more than anything. I almost built a disk recorder using the GI home mechanism and the schmatics in (what WAS it called) Radio-Television Electronics (?)? First tape recorder I got to use was an old Brush Sound-Mirror about 1950-51 in school. Bought a wire rerorder with hard saved money in 1953. Ampex's first commercially successful machine was the 200, and it was almost the size of their first 2" vcr. HUGE floor mounted console. Bill Vermillion - UUCP: uunet!tarpit!bilver!bill : bill@bilver.UUCP