The Webster Chicago Corporation was a maker of electronic equipment in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. Many products were sold under the brand name Webcor. The product line included

record changer A record changer or autochanger is a device that plays several phonograph records in sequence without user intervention. Record changers first appeared in the late 1920s, and were common until the 1980s. History The record changer with a stepped ...

s, wire recorders and

reel to reel Reel-to-reel audio tape recording, also called open-reel recording, is magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording tape is spooled between reels. To prepare for use, the ''supply reel'' (or ''feed reel'') containing the tape is plac ...

tape recorder An audio tape recorder, also known as a tape deck, tape player or tape machine or simply a tape recorder, is a sound recording and reproduction device that records and plays back sounds usually using magnetic tape for storage. In its present- ...

s. They also made phonograph amplifiers that are now used as guitar amplifiers in some cases. These amplifiers' sounds are similar to the sounds of the

Fender Princeton The Fender Princeton was a guitar amplifier made by Fender. It was introduced in 1947 and discontinued in 1979. After Fender introduced the Champ Amp in 1948, the Princeton occupied the next to the bottom spot in the Fender line. Fender Princet ...

. They are valued for their all-tube signal path and hand-wired circuit. Many Webster-Chicago record changers were installed in Magnavox home entertainment systems in the 1940s and early 1950s. Their leading business was wire recorders. They purchased the rights to produce recorders in 1945 from the

Armour Research Foundation IIT Research Institute (IITRI),Greenbaum & Wheeler (1967), cover sheet (technical paper).McCormac; et al. (1967), p. i (book)."IITRI" (or "iiTRi") is used on cover sheets of technical paper documents in prior decades. also known historically and ...

. Webster-Chicago simplified the design and developed a recorder that sold for only $150, half the price of competing models. By the 1950s it was the leading manufacturer of wire recorders in the United States. The wire recorder business was short-lived. In 1952 Webcor introduced its first magnetic tape recorder, and by 1955 magnetic tape recorders overtook wire ones.David Morton. ''Off the Record: The Technology and Culture of Sound Recording in America.'' Rutgers University Press, 2000. p. 95 In the 1960s the firm began to face strong competition from German and Japanese imports. It was purchased by US Industries in 1967, and faded from prominence in the 1970s.

References

{{reflist Electronics companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Chicago