By: Dakota Coffee

1877 Thomas Alva Edison, working in his lab, succeeds in recovering Mary’s Little Lamb from a strip of tinfoil wrapped around a spinning cylinder. He demonstrates his invention to the offices of Scientific American, and the Phonograph is born.

1878 The first music is put on record: cornetist Jules Levy plays “Yankee Doodle.”

1881 Clement Ader, using carbon microphones and armature headphones, accidentally produces a stereo effect when listeners outside the hall monitor adjacent telephone lines linked to stage mikes at the Paris Opera.

1887 Emile Berliner is granted a patent on a flat-disc gramophone, making the production of multiple copies practical.

1888 Edison introduces an electric motor-driven phonograph.

1895 Marconi successfully experiments with his wireless telegraphy system in Italy. Leading to the first transatlantic signals from Poldhu, Cornwall, UK to St. John’s, Newfoundland in 1901.

1898 Valdemar Poulsen patents his “telegraphone”, recording magnetically on steel wire.

1901 The Victor Talking Machine Company is founded by Emile Berliner and Eldridge Johnson. Experimental optical recordings are made on motion picture film.

1906 Lee DeForest invents the triode vacuum tube, the first electronic amplifier.

1912 Major Edwin F. Armstrong is issued a patent for a regenerative circuit, making radio reception practical.

1913 The first “talking movie” is demonstrated by Edison using his Kinetophone process, a cylinder player mechanically synchronized to a film projector.

1917 The Scully disk recording lathe is introduced.

1921 The first commercial AM radio broadcast is made by KDKA, Pittsburgh PA.

1926 O’Neil patents iron dioxide-coated paper tape.

1929 The “Blattnerphone” is developed for use as a magnetic recorder using steel tape.

1933 Magnetic recording on steel wire is developed commercially.

1936 Von Braunmuhl and Weber apply for a patent on the cardioid condenser microphone.

1939 Major Armstrong, the inventor of FM radio, makes the first experimental FM broadcast.

1942 The first stereo tape recordings are made by Helmut Kruger at German Radio in Berlin.

1946 Webster-Chicago manufactures wire recordings for the home market.

1948 The Audio Engineering Society(AES) is formed in New York City.

1950 IBM develops a commercial magnetic drum memory.

1953 Ampex engineers a 4-track, 35 mm magnetic film system for 20 th -Century Fox’s Christmas release of “The Robe” in CinemaScope with surround sound.

1954 The first commercial 2-track stereo tapes are released.

1958 The first commercial stereo disk recordings appear.

1963 Philips introduces the Compact Cassette tape format, and offers licenses worldwide.

1969 Dr. Thomas Stockham begins to experiment with digital tape recording.

1975 Digital tape recording begins to take hold in professional audio studios.

1981 Philips demonstrates the Compact Disc (CD).

1983 Fiber-optic cable is used for long distance digital audio transmission, linking New York and Washington, D.C.

1986 The first digital consoles appear.

1991 Apple debuts the “QuickTime” multimedia format.

1993 Mackie unveils the first “affordable” 8-bus analog console.

1995 Iomega debuts high-capacity “jazz” and “zip” drives, useful as removable storage media for hard disk recording.

1996 Experimental digital recordings are made at 24 bits and 96 kHz.

1998 MP-3 players for downloaded internet audio appear.

1999 Audio DVD Standard 1.0 agreed upon by manufacturers.