UPDATED: The Very Early Magnecord SD-1 Wire Recorder

chris — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 11:48:39 +0000

Courtesy of PS dot com reader H. Layer come these images of his Magnecord SD-1 wire recorder. Magnecord ran a respectable second to Ampex in the development and proliferation of professional audio-tape recorders in the Unites States in the 1940s and 1950s. You can find a tremendous amount of information regarding the various Magnecord tape machines on PreservationSound.com (you might want to start here), as well as many recent recordings that I have made with my Magnecord PT6 machines. Anyhow, it is a small but important footnote in Magnecord history that their first attempt at a recording device was not a tape recorder but instead a wire recorder. H. Layer relates the following:

“Years ago I acquired Magnecord’s only wire recorder, the SD-1. After considerable research, I found out that Russ Tinkham (Ed: one of the four founders of Magnecord INC) was retired and living quite close to me …he was delighted to see the SD-1 after many decades and we became good friends. Photo of my SD-1 attached.”

Above: helpful reader Art Shifrin provides come additional information concerning the SD-1.

Out-of-print-book report: Magnetic Recording (1948)

chris — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 16:40:00 +0000

Not sure where I came across this obscure volume. Written by one S.J. Begun, then VP and chief engineer of recording-tech pioneer Brush Development Corp, ‘Magnetic Recording’ (h.f. ‘MR’) was completed in June 1948 and published the following year by Murray Hill Books.

There is a lot of information in this 235pp volume; the best feature by far, though, is that it contains diagrams and schematics for a great number of the recording devices discussed.

Here’s a quick survey of the machines covered in MR. Most are wire recorders. Remember that tape recording was still incredibly new in 1948; wire was still the dominant format. If you have any of these machines and need to service it, seek out this book. You might find what you need. Names are beneath each image.

The original circa 1948 Ampex tape recorder, which promised an unheralded 30-15k (+/- 1db) frequency response.

The WW11-era German Magnetophone, from which the Ampex was largely derived. The Magnetophone ran at 30 ips in order to achieve its (then) excellent performance.

The Armour Master wire recorder.

The Armour Model 50 wire recorder

The Bell Labs Mirrorphone

Brush Labs Model BK-303

Brush labs model BK-403, the portable Sound Mirror

Brush Labs model BK-503 ‘mail a voice,’ which recorded a magnetic signal on coated paper discs.

Brush Labs SoundMirror

Brush Labs model BK-401

The Lear Dyanport (pictured with American Dynamic mic)

The Magnecorder SD-1, a predecessor (prototype?) of my beloved Magnecord PT6.

The Nemeth Master Wire Recorder

The Peirce Dictation model 55-b

The Rangertone, by Rangertone

The Telegraphone, a pre-vacuum-tube wire recorder. See this earlier post for the details.

The Webster Wire Recorder. In my experience, these are the most commonly-found wire recorders that you may encounter.

The WiRecorder Model PA

wire recorders – Preservation Sound

UPDATED: The Very Early Magnecord SD-1 Wire Recorder

Out-of-print-book report: Magnetic Recording (1948)