Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magnetic tape could with relative ease record and playback audio, visual, and binary computer data. Magnetic tape revolutionized

sound recording and reproduction Sound recording and reproduction is the electrical, mechanical, electronic, or digital inscription and re-creation of sound waves, such as spoken voice, singing, instrumental music, or sound effects. The two main classes of sound recordin ...

and

broadcasting Broadcasting is the distribution of audio or video content to a dispersed audience via any electronic mass communications medium, but typically one using the electromagnetic spectrum (radio waves), in a one-to-many model. Broadcasting began ...

. It allowed

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transm ...

, which had always been broadcast live, to be recorded for later or repeated airing. Since the early 1950s, magnetic tape has been used with computers to store large quantities of data and is still used for backup purposes. Magnetic tape begins to degrade after 10–20 years and therefore is not an ideal medium for long-term archival storage.

Durability

While good for short-term use, magnetic tape is highly prone to disintegration. Depending on the environment, this process may begin after 10–20 years. Over time, magnetic tape made in the 1970s and 1980s can suffer from a type of deterioration called sticky-shed syndrome. It is caused by

hydrolysis Hydrolysis (; ) is any chemical reaction in which a molecule of water breaks one or more chemical bonds. The term is used broadly for substitution, elimination, and solvation reactions in which water is the nucleophile. Biological hydrolysis ...

of the binder in the tape and can render the tape unusable.

Successors

Since the introduction of magnetic tape, other technologies have been developed that can perform the same functions, and therefore, replace it. Despite this, technological innovation continues.

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

and IBM continue to advance tape capacity.

Uses

Audio

Magnetic tape was invented for recording sound by Fritz Pfleumer in 1928 in Germany. Because of escalating political tensions and the outbreak of World War II, these developments in Germany were largely kept secret. Although the Allies knew from their monitoring of Nazi radio broadcasts that the Germans had some new form of recording technology, its nature was not discovered until the Allies acquired German recording equipment as they invaded Europe at the end of the war. It was only after the war that Americans, particularly

Jack Mullin John Thomas Mullin (October 5, 1913 – June 24, 1999) was an American pioneer in the field of magnetic tape sound recording and made significant contributions to many other related fields. From his days at Santa Clara University to his death, ...

John Herbert Orr John Herbert Orr (August 19, 1911 – May 6, 1984) was an Alabama entrepreneur who formed Orradio Industries, Inc., a high-technology firm that manufactured magnetic recording tape for both professional and consumer markets. In 1945, Orr was am ...

, and

Richard H. Ranger Richard Howland Ranger (13 June 1889 – 10 January 1962) was an American electrical engineer, music engineer and inventor. He was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, the son of John Hilliard and Emily Anthen Gillet Ranger, He served in the U.S. Arm ...

, were able to bring this technology out of Germany and develop it into commercially viable formats.

Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...

, an early adopter of the technology, made a large investment in the tape hardware manufacturer

Ampex Ampex is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name AMPEX is a portmanteau, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excellence.AbramsoThe History ...

. A wide variety of audiotape recorders and formats have been developed since. Some magnetic tape-based formats include: * Reel-to-reel * Fidelipac * Stereo-Pak * Perforated (sprocketed) film audio magnetic tape (sepmag, perfotape, sound follower tape, magnetic film) * 8-track tape * Compact Cassette *

Elcaset Elcaset is a short-lived sound reproduction, audio format jointly developed by Sony, Panasonic, and Teac in 1976, building on an idea introduced 20 years earlier in the RCA tape cartridge. In 1976, it was widely felt that the compact cassette w ...

* RCA tape cartridge * Mini-Cassette * Microcassette * Picocassette * NT (cassette) * ProDigi * Digital Audio Stationary Head * Digital Audio Tape * Digital Compact Cassette

Video

Some magnetic tape-based formats include: * Quadruplex videotape *

Ampex 2 inch helical VTR From 1963 to 1970, Ampex manufactured several models of VTR 2-inch helical VTRs, capable of recording and playing back analog black and white video. Recording employed non-segmented helical scanning, with one wrap of the tape around the video hea ...

Type A videotape 1-inch type A (designated Type A by SMPTE) is a reel-to-reel helical scan analog recording videotape format developed by Ampex in 1965, that was one of the first standardized reel-to-reel magnetic tape formats in the 1–inch (25 mm) ...

IVC videotape format IVC 2 inch Helical scan was a high-end broadcast quality helical scan analog recording VTR format developed by International Video Corporation (IVC), and introduced in 1975. Previously, IVC had made a number of 1 inch Helical VTRs. IVC ...

* Type B videotape * Type C videotape * EIAJ-1 * U-matic ** UniHi * Video Cassette Recording * Cartrivision * VHS ** VHS-C ** S-VHS ***

Digital S D-9 or Digital-S as it was originally known, is a professional digital video videocassette format created by JVC in 1995. It is a direct competitor to Sony's Digital Betacam. Its name was changed to D-9 in 1999 by the SMPTE. It was used to a sma ...

*** W-VHS *** D-VHS * Video 2000 * V-Cord * VX (videocassette format) * Betamax * Compact Video Cassette * Betacam ** Betacam SP ** Digital Betacam ** Betacam SX *** MPEG IMX ** HDCAM *** HDCAM SR * M (videocassette format) * MII (videocassette format) * D-1 (Sony) *

DCT (videocassette format) DCT is a digital recording component video videocassette format developed and introduced by Ampex in 1992. It was based on the D1 format, and unlike the uncompressed recording scheme of D1, it was the first digital videotape format to use ...

* D-2 (video) * D-3 (video) * D5 HD * D6 HDTV VTR * Video8 * Hi8 * Digital8 * DV ** MiniDV ** DVCAM *** DVCPRO ***

DVCPRO50 DV refers to a family of codecs and videotape, tape formats used for storing digital video, launched in 1995 by a consortium of camcorder, video camera manufacturers led by Sony and Panasonic. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, DV was strongly ...

*** DVCPRO Progressive *** DVCPRO HD ** HDV * MicroMV

Computer data

Magnetic tape was first used to record computer data in 1951 on the Eckert-Mauchly UNIVAC I. The system's

UNISERVO I The UNISERVO tape drive was the primary I/O device on the UNIVAC I computer. It was the first tape drive for a commercially sold computer. The UNISERVO used metal tape: a thin strip of nickel-plated phosphor bronze (called Vicalloy) 1200 feet long ...

tape drive used a thin strip of one-half-inch (12.65 mm) wide metal, consisting of nickel-plated bronze (called

Vicalloy Vicalloy is a family of cobalt-iron-vanadium wrought ferromagnetic alloys which have high coercivity and are used to make permanent magnets and other magnetic components. Vicalloy is precipitation hardened and can be formed by a number of col ...

). The recording density was 100 characters per inch (39.37 characters/cm) on eight tracks. In 2002, Imation received a US$11.9 million grant from the U.S.

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into Outline of p ...

for research into increasing the data capacity of magnetic tape. In 2014,

and IBM announced that they had been able to record 148 gigabits per square inch with magnetic tape media developed using a new vacuum thin-film forming technology able to form extremely fine crystal particles, allowing true tape capacity of 185 TB.

Notes

References

External links

History of Tape Recording Technology

The Museum of Obsolete Media
{{Authority control Audiovisual introductions in 1928 Audio storage Computer storage tape media Magnetic devices Sound recording Tape recording German inventions 1928 in Germany 1928 in science