Audio Timeline

By: Shae Reid

The phonograph was born

• In 1877, Thomas Alva Edison regained Mary’s Little Lamb from a strip of tinfoil wrapped around a spinning cylinder.

• He demonstrates his invention to the offices of Scientific American.

The stereo affect

• In 1881, Clement Ader, using carbon microphones and armature headphones, accidentally produces a stereo effect when listeners outside the hall monitor adjacent telephone lines linked to stage mikes at the Paris Opera.

Multiple copies of flat-disc gramophone.

• In 1887, Emile Berliner is granted a patent on a flat-disc gramophone, making the production of multiple copies practical.

Electric motor-drivin phonograph

• In 1888, Edison introduces an electric motor-driven phonograph.

First transatlantic signals

• In 1895, Marconi successfully experiments with his wireless telegraphy system in Italy, leading to the first transatlantic signals from Poldhu, Cornwall, UK to St. John's, Newfoundland in 1901.

Telegraphone

• In 1898, Valdemar Poulsen patents his "Telegraphone," recording magnetically on steel wire.

First electronic signal amplifier

• In 1906, Lee DeForest invents the triode vacuum tube, the first electronic signal amplifier.

First live broadcast

• In 1910, Enrico Caruso is heard in the first live broadcast from the Metropolitan Opera, NYC.

The first “talking movie”

• In 1913, The first "talking movie" is demonstrated by Edison using his Kinetophone process, a cylinder player mechanically synchronized to a film projector.

The Scully disk recording

• In 1917, The Scully disk recording lathe is introduced.

• E. C. Wente of Bell Telephone Laboratories publishes a paper in Physical Review describing a "uniformly sensitive instrument for the absolute measurement of sound intensity" -- the condenser microphone.

RCA is founded

• In 1919, The Radio Corporation of America (RCA) is founded. It is owned in part by United Fruit.

First commercial on AM radio broadcast

• In 1921, The first commercial AM radio broadcast is made by KDKA, Pittsburgh PA.

Magnetic recorder using steel tape

• In 1929, Harry Nyquist publishes the mathematical foundation for the sampling theorem basic to all digital audio processing, the "Nyquist Theorem."

• The "Blattnerphone" is developed for use as a magnetic recorder using steel tape.

The first cardioids ribbon microphone is patented

• In 1932, The first cardioids ribbon microphone is patented by Dr. Harry F. Olson of RCA, using a field coil instead of a permanent magnet.

Magnetic recording on steel wire is developed commercially

• In 1933, Magnetic recording on steel wire is developed commercially.

• Snow, Fletcher, and Steinberg at Bell Labs transmit the first inter-city stereo audio program.

first plastic-based magnetic tapes

• In 1935, AEG (Germany) exhibits its "Magnetophon" Model K-1 at the Berlin Radio Exposition.

• BASF prepares the first plastic-based magnetic tapes.

first tape recording of a symphony concert

• In 1936, BASF makes the first tape recording of a symphony concert during a visit by the touring London Philharmonic Orchestra. Sir Thomas Beecham conducts Mozart.

• Von Braunmühl and Weber apply for a patent on the cardioids condenser microphone.

first column loudspeaker array

• In 1938, Benjamin B. Bauer of Shure Bros. engineers a single microphone element to produce a cardioids pickup pattern, called the Unidyne, Model 55. This later becomes the basis for the well known SM57 and SM58 microphones.

• Under the direction of Dr. Harry Olson, Leslie J. Anderson designs the 44B ribbon bidirectional microphone and the 77B ribbon unidirectional for RCA.

• RCA develops the first column loudspeaker array.

eight-track stereophonic sound

• In 1940, Walt Disney's "Fantasia" is released, with eight-track stereophonic sound.

Commercial FM broadcasting begins in the U.S

• In 1941, Commercial FM broadcasting begins in the U.S.

• Arthur Haddy of English Decca devises the first motional feedback, lateral-cut disk recording head, later used to cut their "ffrr" high-fidelity recordings.

The first stereo tape recordings

• In 1942, The RCA LC-1 loudspeaker is developed as a reference-standard control-room monitor.

• Dr. Olson patents a single-ribbon cardioids microphone (later developed as the RCA 77D and 77DX), and a "phased-array" directional microphone.

• The first stereo tape recordings are made by Helmut Kruger at German Radio in Berlin.

Model 604 coaxial loudspeaker

• In 1943, Altec develops their Model 604 coaxial loudspeaker.

Sources

• http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/audio.history.timeline.html