At the meeting on 24th April 2019 Terry Martini-Yates of Ferrograph World, based in Rosyth, talked about “Writing on Iron” – magnetic sound recording – demonstrating several recorders and playing a number of historical recordings, including John Clarricoats G6CL speaking during a visit to Edinburgh in 1961.
A potted history of the development of the magnetic audio recorder from Valdemar Poulson’s invention of the magnetic wire recorder, the steel tape based Blattenerphone, its further development at AEG in Germany and its use by the 3rd Reich in Nazi Germany for war propaganda, to the overnight sensation it created in post-war America, when an enterprising soldier liberated two of the secret German Magnetophon reel to reel tape machines and 50 reels of recording tape.
How, at a demonstration of one of these machines at MGM’s studios, was heard by one of America’s biggest radio stars of the day, that changed the broadcasting and music industry around the globe forever with the high fidelity and new techniques that it offered. It appeared a little later in the UK, but by the late 1950s, it had also found its way into the home and kick started the rise of an early form of social media, “tapesponding” leading to the appearance of specialised magazines devoted to the hobby, and the formation of dozens of tape clubs up and down the UK.
The talk featured early recording items and historic recordings from Terry’s collection.
Terry’s slides are reproduced below with his kind permission. Each carries a descriptive caption.
Many thanks to Terry for allowing us to reproduce his slides in this report.
Terry taking questions after his talk.
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The following equipment photos were taken on the night.
The Brush BK401 Soundmirror (1946).
This unsuccessful early recorder used a very early magnetic tape made of paper and which damaged the heads.
The Boosey & Hawkes Wirek Type A Wire Recorder (1943).
Using nickel-coated iron wire this recorder had a limited frequency response up to 5kHz
making it suitable only for speech recording.
Close-up of the wire recording mechanism.
An early Ferrograph, the Model D (1950) provided superb quality up to 8kHz.
However, it was very expensive and did not enter the mass-market.
Terry is the author of ‘Built Like a Battleship!, A History of the Ferrograph Company’.
The 2nd edition of this book is currently in preparation.
See also his website Ferrograph World (click)
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