MAGNETIC WIRE

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An older medium of magnetic recording now superseded by MAGNETIC TAPE.

The magnetisable wire recorder was the first means of field recording and was used as early as 1899. The Danish engineer Valdemar Poulsen is credited with the development of methods by which sounds could be used to magnetize wire, steel tape or paper tape covered with metallic powder. The recordings could be erased and used again. Wire recorders, using stainless steel wires, were employed until the availability of iron oxide, plastic based tape in the late 1940s.

See: TAPE RECORDER, TAPE RECORDING. Compare: GRAMOPHONE, GRAPHOPHONE, PHONOGRAPH.

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