Editing Wire recording (section)

== Characteristics ==

=== Magnetic format ===
[[File:D Reichhalter 1951 W102 Geraet offen.jpg|thumb|German Reichhalter Reporter W102 wire recorder (c. 1950)]]

Poulsen's original Telegraphone and other very early recorders placed the two poles of the record/replay head on opposite sides of the wire. The wire is thus magnetized transversely to the direction of travel. This method of magnetization was quickly found to have the limitation that as the wire twisted during playback, there were times when the magnetization of the wire was at right angles to the position of the two poles of the head and the output from the head fell to almost zero.

The recorder was improved by placing the two poles on the same side of the wire so that the wire was magnetized along its length or longitudinally. Additionally, the poles were shaped into a ''V'' so that the head wrapped around the wire to some extent. This increased the magnetizing effect and also increased the sensitivity of the head on replay because it collected more of the magnetic flux from the wire. This system was not entirely immune to twisting but the effects were far less marked.

=== Media capacity and speed ===
Compared to tape recorders, wire recording devices have a high media speed, made necessary because of the use of the solid metal medium. Standard postwar wire recorders use a nominal speed of 24 inches per second (610&nbsp;mm/s), making a typical one-hour spool of wire 7,200 feet (approx. 2200 m) long. This enormous length is possible on a spool less than {{convert|3|in|mm}} in diameter because the wire was very fine, having a diameter of {{convert|.004|to|.006|in|mm|abbr=on}} for later models, an improvement over Poulsen's Telegraphone of 1898 which used {{convert|.01|in|mm|adj=on}} wire.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/recording.technology.history/begun6.html |pages=135–56 |title=Magnetic Recording |first=Semi J. |last=Begun |year=1949 |publisher=Rinehart & Company |location=New York}} Transcribed and hosted online by the [[Audio Engineering Society]].</ref> Smaller 30- and 15-minute lengths of wire were employed by the majority of recorders made after 1945. Some heavy-duty recorders use the larger Armour spools, which can contain enough wire to record continuously for several hours. Because the wire is pulled past the head by the take-up spool, the actual wire speed slowly increases as the effective diameter of the take-up spool increases. Standardization prevented this peculiarity from having any impact on the playback of a spool recorded on a different machine, but audible consequences can result from substantially altering the original length of a recorded wire by excisions or by dividing it up onto multiple spools.

=== Fidelity ===
The audio [[fidelity]] of a wire recording made on one of these post-1945 machines is comparable to a contemporary phonograph record or one of the early tape recorders, given a microphone or other signal source of equal quality. Because of its homogeneous nature and very high speed, wire is relatively free of the noticeable background hiss that characterized tape recordings before the advent of noise reduction systems. The Magnecord Corp. of Chicago briefly manufactured a high-fidelity wire recorder intended for studio use, but soon abandoned the system to concentrate on tape recorders.