Oberlin Smith

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Oberlin Smith (born March 22, 1840 in Cincinnati , Ohio , † July 18, 1926 ) was an American entrepreneur and inventor.

Oberlin Smith, 1888

Ferracute

In 1863 he and a cousin founded Ferracute Machine Co. (registered in 1877) with a cousin in Bridgeton (New Jersey) , Laurel Street, for presses, drawing dies and other tools for sheet metal and metalworking, and became the leading business for non-cutting forming work in the USA . He originally supplied food can manufacturers. In 1873 he entered into a partnership with his brother Fred and relocated the operation to the east side of East Lake. When his company burned down in 1903, he kept production across the street. Later he also built minting machines for the imperial Chinese coin. He also supplied the Victor Talking Machine Company founded by Emil Berliner in 1898 . From 1910 he supplied Ford with presses.

His motto was “I can make a better one”. In 1890 he became president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers .

Magnetic recording

Drawing from the Electrical World

In the winter of 1877/78 he visited Edison, who had invented his phonograph the previous summer . This rustled and crackled too much. On October 4, 1878, he filed a patent caveat for a magnetic recording that he published ten years later.

In Electrical World of September 8, 1888, he published a description of his method of sound recording with a cotton or silk thread containing metal shavings. He also considered using a solid steel wire, but feared that the magnetization would spread uncontrollably over the entire wire. He may have built a working model, but none is said to have survived.

Building on this, Valdemar Poulsen developed the telegraphone in 1898 .

In 1921/22 he also developed a remote-controlled record changer for 50 records called Autofono .

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personal data
SURNAME Smith, Oberlin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American entrepreneur and inventor
DATE OF BIRTH March 22, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH Cincinnati , Ohio
DATE OF DEATH July 18, 1926