I Bet Ya Didn't Know

Magnetic recording was invented in 1898 by Valdemar Poulson of Denmark. Called the “telegraphone,” it was used to record telephone messages by applying magnetic pulses to a steel wire. The patent for the invention of the phonograph was awarded to Emile Berliner in 1887. But the recording format of choice would become the iron oxide-coated tape, a paper version of which was invented in 1927 by Joseph A. O’Neill and a film version of which was invented in 1928 by Fritz Pfleumer. The tape recorder, or “magnetophone”, was invented in 1936, the year that the Volkswagen Beetle was launched. Dutch company Philips introduced the audio cassette in 1963. The video recording machine was invented by the Ampex corporation of California in 1956. The first video recorder, the Ampex VR1000, stood 3 ft 3 in high [or more than 6ft when fully assembled] and weighed as much as a small car: 1,466 lb. The home video recorder was introduced in 1972 by Philips. JVC introduced the VHS system in 1976. Sony introduced the first handheld film camera, the Sony Mavica camcorder, in 1981. The first musical film was made in 1896 by George Thomas. It was a series of still shots depicting the song The Little Lost Child by Edward B. Marks and Joseph W. Stern.