Oberlin Smith (March 22, 1840 – July 19, 1926) was an American

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considerin ...

who published one of the earliest works dealing with magnetic recording in 1888.

Biography

He was born on March 22, 1840, in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line w ...

, to George R. and Salome (Kemp) Smith. He started a small machine shop in

Bridgeton, New Jersey Bridgeton is a city in Cumberland County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is the county seat of Cumberland County

, where he lived most of his life, which became known as the Ferracute Machine Company in 1877. For the entire existence of the company he was the president and chief engineer. He died on July 19, 1926, in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

Magnetic recording

On September 8, 1888, Smith published a short note entitled "Some Possible Forms of the Phonograph" in the British journal ''Electrical World'', where he suggested (probably for the first time) the use of permanent magnetic impressions for the recording of sound.Smith, Oberlin (1888 September 8
"Some possible forms of phonograph,"
''The Electrical World'', 12 (10) : 116–117. Smith suggested using cotton or silk thread, into which steel dust or short clippings of fine wire could be suspended. These particles were to be magnetized in accordance with the

alternating current Alternating current (AC) is an electric current which periodically reverses direction and changes its magnitude continuously with time in contrast to direct current (DC) which flows only in one direction. Alternating current is the form in whic ...

from a

microphone A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike (), is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and publ ...

source. Smith also discussed the possibility of using a hard metal wire or chain, but preferred the thread. Smith built a machine to spin steel dust into thread, but could not harden the dust because of oxidation. As implementing his ideas would require thousands of hours of work, he published his theories but no one attempted to implement them. Many of Smith's ideas were independently reproduced by

Valdemar Poulsen Valdemar Poulsen (23 November 1869 – 23 July 1942) was a Danish engineer who made significant contributions to early radio technology. He developed a magnetic wire recorder called the telegraphone in 1898 and the first continuous wave rad ...

when he developed the first true magnetic recorder.

References

External links

Recognition
at the NJ Inventor's Hall of Fame.
Write up
in local newspaper.
Compilation
of Oberlin Smith biographical and technical information of his inventions. 1840 births 1926 deaths American engineers People from Bridgeton, New Jersey Engineers from New Jersey {{US-engineer-stub