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Magnetic Tape

Electrical Engineering

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Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage consisting of a thin magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film, historically used to record sound, video and computer data. It was developed in Germany in 1928 by the engineer Fritz Pfleumer for sound recording, building on earlier magnetic wire recording developed in Denmark. Germany kept wartime advances in tape recording secret, and the technology reached the United States only after the Allies recovered German recording equipment at the end of the Second World War, when American engineers including Jack Mullin brought it into commercial use, aided by the entertainer Bing Crosby's investment in the manufacturer Ampex.

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