Origins

     Early audiotape technology drew on Danish radio pioneer Val­ demar Poulsen's 1898 invention of a device called the "Telegraphone." The mechanical energy of sound was converted into a flow of electric current in a microphone and was then translated into magnetic fields, or "flux," in a small induction coil. Then, as a magnetizable steel wire or tape was drawn rapidly past the induction coil, the steel would retain a portion of that magnetic flux as a record of the original sound. This process became the basis for all later developments in magnetic recording. The Telegraphone was a grand prize winner at the 1900 International Exposition in Paris. However, it was only in the late 1930s and early 1940s that U.S. firms became interested in this technology, and even then, only two firms were actively engaged in commercializing it: the Brush Development Company of Cleveland, Ohio, and the Armour Research Foundation of the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago.

     In contrast, the development of magnetic recording technology advanced in Europe. A turning point came in the early 1930s, when the German firm Allgemeine Elektricitäts Gesellschaft developed the Magnetophone, a high-quality broadcast recorder capable of superior sound recording and reproduction. In 1944, after almost a decade of production, the most advanced Magnetophones incorporated scores of technical innovations. The German broadcasting authority, Reichs Rundfunk Gesellschaft (RRG), became the major customer for Magnetophones, installing them in nearly all German radio studios. During World War II, the RRG took over the operations of broadcast stations in occupied countries and installed Magnetophones there as well. Thus, by the end of the war, tape recording was a standard feature in many European radio stations.

    One of the chief distinguishing features of the Magneto­ phone system was its special recording tape. Since the late 1920s, the German chemical firm JG Farben had been developing a plastic tape base coated with a magnetic form of iron oxide that could substitute for the heavy, expensive steel recording tape used in previous designs. The particles of oxide on such a tape act as tiny individual magnets, and it was learned that it was possible to record higher frequencies at slower tape speeds than on a solid steel band or wire. The slower speed and the lower cost of materials made the coated tape much cheaper, contributing to its widespread adoption in Germany.

     The structure of U.S. broadcasting militate against the creation of a demand for that technology. U.S. radio networks relied heavily on live programming distributed by telephone line. Recording represented a threat, both because the recording of a network program was piracy of the network's product and because it would then be technically possible tO operate a network by distributing recorded rather than live programs. The status quo in program technology was reinforced by the oligopolistic structure of the broadcast equipment manufacturing market, which was dominated by firms such as Western Electric and the Radio Corporation of America (RCA). None of these firms would offer magnetic recording equipment until after World War II.

Postwar Innovation

      In 1945 the United States enlisted the aid of its businesspeople, scientists, and engineers to collect German scientific and industrial knowledge. Some of those who became intimately familiar with Magnetophone technology while in Germany returned to the United States to play a role in the establishment of magnetic recording manufacturing there.

     In 1945 Col. John T. Mullin was part of an Army Signal Corps team investigating the military applications of German electronic technology. He was told by a British officer about a tape recorder with exceptional musical quality at a Frankfurt, Germany, radio station that was being operated by the Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS). There Mullin found German technicians working for AFRS using Magnetophone audio tape recorder/players. The technological improvements of a constant speed transport, plastic tape impregnated or coated with iron oxide, and the employment of a high AC-bias frequency mixed with the audio signal made these machines high fidelity. The first two machines acquired were turned over to the Signal Corps, and Col. Mullin disassembled two other machines and shipped them to his home in San Francisco. In 1946 Mullin designed custom record/reproduce electronics that improved the performance, rewired and reassembled the Magnetophone machines, and went into a partnership with Bin Palmer for movie soundtrack work, using those machines and the 50 reels of tape he had acquired.

     In October 1946 Mullin and his partner Palmer attended the annual convention of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers, where he demonstrated the machine to the sound heads of Metro Goldwyn Mayer and Twentieth Century Fox and to the chief engineer of Altec Lansing. Mullin was then invited to an Institute of Radio Engineers meeting in May 1947 to demonstrate the German Magnetophone. It was there that employees of Ampex, a small maker of electric motors in Redwood City, California, first saw and heard the tape recorder. The U.S. government had arranged for the suspension of all German legal claims to magnetic recording technology and had sponsored it's wholesale transfer to the United States. The Commerce Department released its technical reports, captured documents, and patents related to the Magnetophone, allow­ing any interested manufacturers access to information relating to tape-recording technology. Shortly thereafter, Ampex began its own developmental project.

     In 1947 the technical staff of the Bing Crosby Show on American Broadcasting Company (ABC) arranged to have Mullin rerecord original disk recordings of the Bing Crosby Show onto tape and then edit them. Crosby had been with the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) until 1944, doing the Kraft Music Hall live, but he did not like the regime imposed by live shows. Because NBC would not permit recorded programs, Crosby took the fall off and returned on the newly formed ABC network with a new sponsor, Philco, because ABC had agreed to let him record on electrical transcriptions as long as his ratings did not diminish. The process required cutting a record and then rerecording; what with sometimes two or three generations, the quality of sound suffered. In July 1947, after the initial demonstration of editing, Mullin was invited to give a demonstration of his equipment for Crosby's producers by taping live side by side with transcription equipment the first show for the 1947-48 season in August at the ABC-NBC studios in Hollywood. Bing Crosby Enterprises then negotiated financing for Ampex for exclusive distribution rights, and Mullin was employed to record the Crosby show on his original German equipment until the Ampex machines became available. Made with the original German tape recorders and 50 rolls of BASF tape, Mullin's first recorded demonstration show of August 1947 was broadcast over ABC on 1 October 1947.

     In 1948 Alexander Poniatov and his team of engineers at Ampex introduced the first commercial audio tape recorder based on the Magnetophone as Ampex Model 200. The first two, with serial numbers 1 and 2, were presented to John Mul­ lin, and numbers 3-12 went into service at ABC. (To meet the contract requirements, Mullin gave his machines to ABC and later received numbers 13-14 for his contribution.)

     The Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M) of Saint Paul, Minnesota, already had experience in the manufacture of coated films from its line of adhesive tapes. Home tape machines such as the Brush Soundmirror, which used Scotch 100 paper tape supplied by 3M, had been introduced in the consumer market, but these fell far short of professional requirements. Mullin then asked 3M engineers to reverse-engineer the German product using samples of IG Farben tape and Department of Commerce technical reports. Although the Minnesota company quickly came to dominate the field, much smaller firms successfully broke into the market, competing with 3M.

     The Crosby show remained tape-delayed, setting a prece­dent in broadcast production that remains the norm to this day. Most other network radio and recording artists quickly adopted tape to produce their shows and discs, including Burl Ives and Les Paul. Live broadcasting was soon limited mostly to local disc jockeys spinning the new long-playing 33-1/3 and 45-rpm music discs.

     Mullin remained with Bing Crosby Enterprises, recording his shows and others at ABC, until 1951. As the exclusive distributor for Ampex, Bing Crosby Enterprises sold hundreds of recorders to radio stations and master recording studios. In 1951 Mullin and other engineers were spun off as the Bing Crosby Electronic Division to handle development of audio instrumentation and video recording. In 1956 the Electronic Division became the Minicom Division of 3M, where Mullin served as head of engineering and as professional recorder development manager until his retirement in 1975. He died on 24 June 1999 at age 85.