Editing Tape recorder (section)

=== Early steel tape recorders ===
[[File:Blattnerphone recorder 1937.jpg|thumb|Marconi-Stille steel tape recorder at BBC studios, London, 1937]]
In 1924 a German engineer, Kurt Stille, developed the Poulsen wire recorder as a dictating machine.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Magnetic tape recorder - Kurt Stille, Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company|url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/magnetic-tape-recorder-kurt-stille-marconi-s-wireless-telegraph-company/mAFj8zsPfUBqrw|access-date=2020-06-20|website=Google Arts & Culture|language=en}}</ref> The following year a fellow German, [[Louis Blattner]], working in Britain, licensed Stille's device and started work on a machine which would instead record on a magnetic steel tape, which he called the Blattnerphone.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.orbem.co.uk/tapes/blattner.htm |title=Blattnerphone |access-date=2013-12-11}}</ref> The tape was 6&nbsp;mm wide and 0.08&nbsp;mm thick, traveling at 5 feet per second; the recording time was 20 minutes.

The [[BBC]] installed a Blattnerphone at Avenue House<!--Probably not [[Avenue House]]. [http://www.bbceng.info/Equipment/ed_top.htm This] mentions more than one Avenue House.--> in September 1930 for tests, and used it to record [[King George V]]'s speech at the opening of the [[Round Table Conferences (India)|India Round Table Conference]] on 12 November 1930. Though not considered suitable for music the machine continued in use and was moved to [[Broadcasting House]] in March 1932, a second machine also being installed. In September 1932, a new model was installed, using 3&nbsp;mm tape with a recording time of 32 minutes.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=EdIjgeedgRwC&pg=PA54 Video Recording Technology: Its Impact on Media and Home Entertainment, Aaron Foisi Nmungwun – Google Books] pub. Routledge, Nov. 2012. {{ISBN|9781136466045}}</ref><ref>[http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BBC-Annual/BBC-Year-Book-1932.pdf The BBC Year-Book 1932] p.101, British Broadcasting Corporation, London W.1, retrieved 30 September 2015</ref>

In 1933, the [[Marconi Company]] purchased the rights to the Blattnerphone, and newly developed Marconi-Stille recorders were installed in the BBC's [[Maida Vale Studios]] in March 1935.<ref>{{citation |url=http://www.orbem.co.uk/tapes/ms.htm |title=Marconi-Stille recorders |access-date=2013-12-11}}</ref> The quality and reliability were slightly improved, though it still tended to be obvious that one was listening to a recording. A reservoir system containing a loop of tape helped to stabilize the speed. The tape was 3&nbsp;mm wide and traveled at 1.5&nbsp; meters/second.<ref name="Nagra"/>

They were not easy to handle. The reels were heavy and expensive and the steel tape has been described as being like a traveling razor blade. The tape was liable to snap, particularly at joints, which at 1.5&nbsp; meters/second could rapidly cover the floor with loops of the sharp-edged tape. Rewinding was done at twice the speed of the recording.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://creativeaudioworks.com/history/the-marconi-stille-magnetic-recorder-reproducer/ |title=The Marconi-Stille magnetic recorder-reproducer |author=Stewart Adam |date=October 18, 2012 |access-date=2022-12-25}}</ref>

Despite these drawbacks, the ability to make replayable recordings proved useful, and even with subsequent methods coming into use (direct-cut discs<ref>{{citation |url=http://rfwilmut.net/broadcast/recording4.html |title=Directly-cut discs |access-date=2013-12-11}}</ref> and Philips-Miller optical film<ref>{{citation |url=http://rfwilmut.net/broadcast/recording3.html |title=Optical film |access-date=2013-12-11}}),</ref> the Marconi-Stilles remained in use until the late 1940s.<ref>Information in this section from 'BBC Engineering 1922-1972' by Edward Pawley, pp178-182; plus some from colleagues who worked in BH in the 1930s.</ref>
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