Right on about Jay McKnight. I have had the privilege of a couple of moderately long conversations with him. He knows more about magnetic recording than almost anyone alive on the planet.
Interesting how small the industrial design world was then.
Dean Wooldrige
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dean_Wooldridge was the eventual "W" in TRW
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRW_Inc.
that eventually became the financial institution, but, before that, TRW did other things including acquisition of Bell Sound, an early maker of HiFi, PA equipment, tape and disc recorders, under the direction of Floyd Bell, which was acquired by Thompson Products (the "T" in "TRW") (originally the Cleveland Cap Screw Company, founded in 1901) for about one million dollars. Bell became a wholly owned subsidiary of Thompson Products, which eventually became the Bell Sound Division of Thompson Ramo and Wooldridge.
http://www.wingspreadrecords.com/Bell.htmSaid company continued to make tape recorders (with AC bias) through the mid 60s when they went out of business as such.
http://museumofmagneticsoundrecording.org/ManufacturersBellLabs.htmlThis page says there was no affiliation between Bell Sound and Bell Labs, which, actually there sort of was through the person of Dean Wooldridge. One wonders if he had any personal input into their recorder designs after they were acquired? Also, were the first Bell Sound recorders AC bias? By the late 40s, probably so.
I have a keen interest in this because I actually own a few of their recorders.
