Recording Wire [Webster-Chicago]
Maker and role
Webster-Chicago, Maker
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Object detail
Accession number
2007.76
Maker
Description
Stainless steel wire wrapped around grey coloured metal reel, which is printed in white ink with 'WEBSTER-CHICAGO' and company logo. Cardboard packaging for reel printed with maker's info and logo in red, cream and black colouring. Sound was recorded by stainless steel wire, with diameter of .0036 inches, travelling past a vertical motion recording head at an average of 24 inches a second. Production of this recording wire lasted from about 1945 through the early 1950's.
Brief History
Valdemar Poulsen, a test engineer at the Copenhagen telephone company, is credited with inventing the recording of sound onto wire using magnetism in 1898 with his telegraphone. Wire recording was at its peak from the mid-1940s to mid-1950s, the era during which this reel of recording wire was produced by the Webster-Chicago Corporation. The stainless steel wire media was perfect for military applications as it could withstand extreme temperature and climate variations in the field. After World War II came to an end, Webster-Chicago continued to produce wire recorders and introduced a product line oriented toward the civilian market. In 1952 the company launched a new line of tape recorders, as magnetic tape recording came to prominence, and eventually discontinued its production of wire recorders.
Marks
Webster . Chicago/ W C/ Recording Wire Printed
Media/Materials
Credit Line
Webster-Chicago. Recording Wire [Webster-Chicago], 2007.76. The Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT).
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