Alexander Matveevich Poniatoff (, tr. ''Aleksándr Matvéjevič Ponjatóv''; 25 March 1892 – 24 October 1980) was a Russian-born American

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

. Poniatoff was born in 1892 in Russkaya Aysha, Kazansky District,

Kazan Governorate Kazan Governorate was an administrative-territorial unit ('' guberniya'') of the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire, and the Russian SFSR from 1708 to 1920, with its capital in Kazan. History Kazan Governorate, together with seven other ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. He emigrated from Russia to China, where he worked for the Shanghai Power Company, until he emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in 1927. He would subsequently work for General Electric, Pacific Gas & Electric and Dalmo-Victor.History of The Early Days of Ampex Corporation As recalled by JOHN LESLIE and ROSS SNYDER, AES Historical Paper, Dec 17, 2010
/ref> In 1944 he founded

Ampex Ampex Data Systems Corporation is an American electronics company founded in 1944 by Alexander M. Poniatoff as a spin-off of Dalmo-Victor. The name ''AMPEX'' is an acronym, created by its founder, which stands for Alexander M. Poniatoff Excell ...

, using his initials A.M.P. plus "ex" for "excellence" to create the name. The high-frequency bias technique, which made quality recording possible, was invented by

Telefunken Telefunken was a German radio and television producer, founded in Berlin in 1903 as a joint venture between Siemens & Halske and the ''AEG (German company), Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft'' (AEG) ("General electricity company"). Prior to ...

engineers and put into practical use by Poniatoff. Danish engineer

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

's original magnetic recorder was previously only usable for telephony recording. In 1956, Ampex engineers created the world's first rotary head recorder, the VR-1000

videotape recorder A video tape recorder (VTR) is a tape recorder designed to record and playback video and audio material from magnetic tape. The early VTRs were open-reel devices that record on individual reels of 2-inch-wide (5.08 cm) tape. They were u ...

. Poniatoff served as president of Ampex until 1955, when he was elected chairman of the board. He died in 1980.

References

External links

*
About Poniatoff at the 20th Century American Leaders Database
*Нехамкин Э. АЛЕКСАНДР ПОНЯТО�

1892 births 1980 deaths 20th-century American engineers American people of Russian descent Emigrants from the Russian Empire to China Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Russian engineers Russian inventors 20th-century American inventors Russian scientists {{US-inventor-stub