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 Wire recording or magnetic wire recording was the first magnetic recording technology, an analog type of audio storage in which a magnetic recording is made on a thin steel wire. The first crude magnetic recorder was invented in 1898 by Val ...

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 recording ...

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 wi ...

. 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 tr ...

, 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 hydrolysi ...

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 Fritz Pfleumer (20 March 1881 – 29 August 1945) was a German engineer who invented magnetic tape for recording sound. Biography Fritz was born as the son of Robert and Minna, née Hünich. His father Robert (1848–1934) was born in Greiz, ...

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 amon ...

, and Richard H. Ranger, 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 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 pla ...

* Fidelipac *

Stereo-Pak The Muntz Stereo-Pak, commonly known as the 4-track cartridge, is a magnetic tape sound recording cartridge technology. The Stereo-Pak cartridge was inspired by the Fidelipac 3-track tape cartridge system invented by George Eash in 1954 and ...

* Perforated (sprocketed) film audio magnetic tape (sepmag, perfotape, sound follower tape, magnetic film) * 8-track tape *

Compact Cassette The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Otte ...

Elcaset Elcaset is a short-lived 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 was never likely t ...

* 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 h ...

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 m ...

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 U-matic is an analogue recording videocassette format first shown by Sony in prototype in October 1969, and introduced to the market in September 1971. It was among the first video formats to contain the videotape inside a cassette, as opp ...

** UniHi * Video Cassette Recording * Cartrivision * VHS ** VHS-C ** S-VHS *** Digital S *** W-VHS ***

D-VHS D-VHS is a digital video recording format developed by JVC, in collaboration with Hitachi, Matsushita, and Philips. The "D" in D-VHS originally stood for "Data", but JVC renamed the format as "Digital VHS". Released in 1998, it uses the same ph ...

Video 2000 Video 2000 (also known as V2000, with the tape standard Video Compact Cassette, or VCC) is a consumer videocassette system and analogue recording standard developed by Philips and Grundig to compete with JVC's VHS and Sony's Betamax video tech ...

V-Cord V-Cord is an analog recording videocassette format developed and released by Sanyo. V-Cord (later referred to as V-Cord I) was released in 1974, and could record 60 minutes on a cassette. V-Cord II, released in 1976, could record 120 minutes on a ...

* VX (videocassette format) *

Betamax Betamax (also known as Beta, as in its logo) is a consumer-level analog recording and cassette format of magnetic tape for video, commonly known as a video cassette recorder. It was developed by Sony and was released in Japan on May 10, 1975, ...

* 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) * D-2 (video) * D-3 (video) * D5 HD * D6 HDTV VTR *

Video8 The 8mm video format refers informally to three related videocassette formats. These are the original Video8 (analog recording) format and its improved successor Hi8 (analog video and analog audio but with provision for digital audio), as well as ...

* Hi8 *

Digital8 Digital8 (or Di8) is a consumer digital recording videocassette for camcorders based on the 8 mm video format developed by Sony, and introduced in 1999. The Digital8 format is a combination of the earlier analog Hi8 tape transport with the di ...

* DV **

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

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

***

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

*** DVCPRO50 *** 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 UNIVAC I (Universal Automatic Computer I) was the first general-purpose electronic digital computer design for business application produced in the United States. It was designed principally by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly, the inven ...

. The system's UNISERVO I tape drive used a thin strip of one-half-inch (12.65 mm) wide metal, consisting of nickel-plated bronze (called Vicalloy). 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 physical s ...

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