Editing Wire recording (section)

== History ==
[[File:US Patent 661,619 - Magnetic recorder.jpg|thumb|upright|left|First [[United States patent law|US patent]] issued 1900 for a magnetic wire recorder by inventor [[Valdemar Poulsen]] ]]

The first wire recorder was invented in 1898 by Danish engineer [[Valdemar Poulsen]], who gave his product the trade name Telegraphone. Wire recorders for dictation and telephone recording were made almost continuously by multiple companies (mainly the American Telegraphone Company) through the 1920s and 1930s, but use of this new technology was extremely limited. [[Dictaphone]] and [[Ediphone]] recorders, which still employed [[Phonograph cylinder|wax cylinders]] as the recording medium, were the devices normally used for these applications during this period.

The peak of wire recording lasted from approximately 1946 to 1954. It resulted from technical improvements and the development of inexpensive designs licensed internationally by the [[Brush Development Company]] of Cleveland, Ohio and the Armour Research Foundation<ref name="Morton">Morton (1998) (journal article), p. 213.</ref> of the Armour Institute of Technology (later the [[IIT Research Institute]] of the [[Illinois Institute of Technology]]). The two organizations (Brush and Armour) licensed dozens of manufacturers in the U.S., Japan, and Europe. Examples are Wilcox-Gay,<ref name=Morton/> Peirce,<ref name=Morton/> [[Webster-Chicago|Webcor]],<ref name=Morton/> and Air King.<ref name=Morton/> Sales elsewhere encouraged [[Sears]] to provide a model,<ref>Sears (circa 1949) (pamphlet manual).</ref> and some authors to prepare specialized manuals.<ref>Sams (1947) (book).</ref><ref>Hickman (1958) (book).</ref><ref>Judge (1950) (manual).</ref>

These improved wire recorders were not only marketed for office use, but also as home entertainment devices that offered advantages over the home [[acetate disc|acetate disc recorders]] which were increasingly sold for making short recordings of family and friends and for recording excerpts from radio broadcasts. Unlike home-cut phonograph records, the steel wire could be reused for new recordings and allowed much longer uninterrupted recordings to be made than the few minutes of audio per side possible with disc recorders.

The earliest magnetic [[tape recorder]]s, not commercially available in the United States until 1948, were too expensive, complicated, and bulky to compete with these consumer-level wire recorders.<ref name="Mort">Morton (1998) (journal article).</ref> During the first half of the 1950s, however, tape recorders which were sufficiently affordable, simple, and compact to be suitable for home and office use started appearing and they rapidly superseded wire recorders in the marketplace.<ref name=Mort/><ref name=Morton/>

Exceptionally, the use of wire for [[sound recording]] continued into the 1960s in Protona's Minifon miniature recorders, in which the importance of maximizing recording time in a minimum of space outweighed other considerations. For any given level of audio quality, the nearly hair-thin wire had the advantage that it was a much more compact storage medium than tape. The Minifon wire recorder was designed for stealth use and its accessories included a microphone disguised as a wristwatch.<ref>[http://www.cryptomuseum.com/covert/rec/minifon/special/index.htm Protona Minifon Special], cryptomuseum.com, Retrieved 2016-01-06.</ref>

Wire recording was also used in some aircraft [[flight recorder]]s beginning in the early 1940s, mainly for recording radio conversations between crewmen or with ground stations. Because steel wire was more compact, robust, and heat-resistant than magnetic tape (which is plastic-based), wire recorders continued to be manufactured for this purpose through the 1950s and remained in use somewhat later than that. There were also wire recorders made to record data in [[satellite]]s and other [[uncrewed spacecraft]] of the 1950s to perhaps the 1970s.{{cn|date=September 2020}}