Semi Joseph Begun

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Semi Joseph Begun , after his emigration also S. Joseph Begun or Semi J. Begun (born December 2, 1905 in Danzig , † January 5, 1995 in Cleveland , Ohio ) was a German-American electrical engineer and entrepreneur. He is considered a pioneer of magnetic recording .

Life

Semi Joseph Begun was the son of Wolf Begun and his wife Elisabeth. He studied at the Technical University of Berlin in Berlin-Charlottenburg until 1929 . Immediately after completing his studies with a degree in engineering, he took a position at Ferdinand Schuchardt, Berliner Fernsprech- und Telegraphenwerk AG .

Dailygraph

The Ferdinand Schuchardt company was in negotiations with the engineer and patent owner Curt Stille and the entrepreneur Karl Bauer, whose Echophon-Maschinen-GmbH wanted to bring a dictation machine onto the market under the name “Dailygraph” . The two partners were looking for an experienced manufacturer who could bring the device to series production and then take over production in large numbers. The Daily graph is not set longer on a mechanical method as used for recording of speech and sound since the invention of the phonograph by Thomas Edison was used, but worked with electromagnetic induction to a thin steel wire as a recording medium. The Danish inventor Valdemar Poulsen had already presented the first functional device using this method as a telegraphone at the Paris World Exhibition in 1900 , but despite the initial enthusiasm of a large public, it was not commercially successful. The further development of the technology that has taken place over twenty years, not least also by Curt Stille, as well as the audio amplifiers that are now available offered good prospects for the breakthrough now.

The Ferdinand Schuchardt AG possessed at this time either on its own research department nor experience with the technology. Therefore, she hired Semi Joseph Begun to lead the negotiations to a successful conclusion, to develop a series model and then to manage the production of the devices. In fact, Begun was able to persuade the partners to conclude a contract and in 1930 presented them with a prototype that met the requirements and could go into regular production. Begun then moved to Echophone-Maschinen-GmbH as a development engineer and made numerous customer visits over the next two years to talk about requests and suggestions for improvement on the Dailygraph. The device was not cheap and the first customers bought it only out of curiosity or because of its image as high-tech, not for its practical use. As a result, the number of units sold remained below expectations. In 1932, Standard Elektrizitätsgesellschaft (SEG), a subsidiary of the American ITT Corporation , took over both Echophon-Maschinen-GmbH and Ferdinand Schuchardt AG in quick succession to entrust the production of the devices to their subsidiary C. Lorenz AG .

Textophone and steel tape machine

At C. Lorenz , Begun was given responsibility for his own program for the further technical development of the electromagnetic process and, as a first order, the improvement and redesign of the daily graph in order to eliminate the weaknesses that he noticed when repairing customer devices. The result was marketed under the name “Textophon” from 1933 and quickly became popular.

In 1933, Semi Joseph Begun received his doctorate from the Technical University of Berlin with his dissertation “Contribution to the theory of electromagnetic sound recording on steel wire”.

His next assignment for C. Lorenz was to increase the quality of recording and playback. A license sold by Carl Stille to Ludwig Blattner in the United Kingdom was now owned by Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company in London . Marconi had received the order to further develop the "Blattnerphone", which was designed for the dubbing of films, in which the steel wire had been replaced by a steel band approximately 3 mm wide, into a recording device for reports of the British BBC . This resulted in the so-called “Marconi-Stille” machines from 1935. At around the same time, Semi Joseph Begun's department had brought a model to production readiness, which was soon known as a “steel tape machine” for all the Germans that were part of the Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft Radio stations was in use. When reporting on the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, it received admiring attention, especially from foreign press colleagues. In contrast to the British Marconi-Stille machines, which were as big as a cupboard and where at least two employees had to touch at least two employees at the same time because of the enormous weight to change the steel belt rolls, Begun had significantly lighter and more flexible devices for the C. Lorenz designed for mobile use in the reporter car.

The steel tape machines were his last project for C. Lorenz . In view of increasing anti-Semitism during the National Socialism of the German Reich , Semi Joseph Begun emigrated to the United States in 1935.

United States

Begun tried to convince the broadcasting companies of the advantages of magnetic recording, but was unsuccessful. He eventually worked in the research division of Guided Radio, Inc. , New York , where he developed a marine communications system for the United States Navy . During this time, he only continued to work on magnetic recording privately.

In 1937 he founded the company Acoustic Consultants, Inc. , for which, as Vice President and Chief Engineer, he developed the “Sound-Mirror”, the first commercial magnetic tape recorder in the USA, within a year. The device was based on German technology, but was geared more towards simple home users than professional use.

Just a year later, Begun took on a position as chief engineer at the Brush Development Company in Cleveland , Ohio as vice president and head of research and development, which he held until 1952. After the USA declared war on World War II , Begun was a member of the National Defense Research Committee from 1943 to 1945 and President Harry S. Truman awarded him a Presidential Certificate of Merit in 1948 for his contribution. Begun improved magnetic recorders for military aircraft , developed underwater microphones with piezoelectric crystals, and constructed sonar sighting devices for torpedoes . From 1950 to 1953 he was a member of the National Security Industry Association and served on the acoustics committee.

Semi Joseph Begun stayed with the company when the Brush Development Company and Brush Labs were acquired by the Cleveland Graphite Bronze Company for $ 7 million in 1952 and operated as Clevite Corp. until 1959 . traded. However, he switched to sales from 1955 to 1962. In 1963 he became Vice President and merged his company with the Gould National Battery to form Gould Inc. Here, too, he remained Vice President with responsibility for technology and was a member of the Board of Directors until his retirement in 1971. He was technical director until in The 1960s repeatedly introduced new concepts for recording media or possible applications for magnetic recording technology. His ideas led to the first demonstration of a video head and a paper that was magnetically coated on both sides under the name Mail-A-Voice was a forerunner to the development of the floppy disk .

In 1971, in retirement, he founded a management consultancy under the name Auctor Associates and supported technology-oriented customers in Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Chicago .

Semi Joseph Begun it was of particular concern to stand up against violence in society and, therefore, he founded the Society for the Prevention of Violence and Aggression in Children and at John Carroll University in Cleveland, the Begun Institute for Studies of Violence and Aggression together with his wife Ruth (née Waldmann), with whom he had been married since 1938.

Works and awards

He received several patents for his improvements in magnetic recording technology.

In addition to his dissertation Contribution to the Theory of Electromagnetic Sound Recording on Steel Wire from 1933, he also wrote Magnetic Recording , published in 1949 by the Technical Division Murray Hill Books .

His contribution to electroacoustics was honored by the Audio Engineering Society in 1956 with the "Emil Berliner Award" and in 1960 with the "John H. Potts Medal".

In 1993 he received a place in the Ohio Science, Technology and Industry Hall of Fame .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Eric D. Daniel, C. Denis Mee, Mark H. Clark: Magnetic Recording: The First 100 Years. John Wiley & Sons, 1999, ISBN 978-0-7803-4709-0 . P. 32 f.
    ( limited preview in Google Book search)
  2. ^ Brush Mail-A-Voice and the Recordon (audiotools.com)
  3. ↑ z. E.g .: Electromagnetic Talking Device , Patent No. 2,048,487 issued July 21, 1936 and Electromagnetic Talking Machine , Patent No. 2,048,488 of July 21, 1936. In: freepatentsonline.com , accessed November 11, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Begun, Semi Joseph
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Begun, Semi J.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American engineer and pioneer of magnetic recording
DATE OF BIRTH December 2, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Danzig
DATE OF DEATH January 5, 1995
Place of death Cleveland , Ohio