First Cassette Tape

Inventor of the Cassette Tape

The Philips Company of the Netherlands invented and released the first compact audio-cassette in 1962. They used high-quality polyester 1/8-inch tape produced by BASF. Recording and playback was at a speed of 1.7/8 inches per second.

The next year in the U.S. sales began of the Norelco Carry-Corder dictation machine that used the new cassette tape. The consumer's demand for blank tape used for personal music-recording was unanticipated by Philips.
German inventor SeJoseph Begun was a pioneer in the field of magnetic recording.

A pioneer in the early history of magnetic tape recording, Semi Joseph Begun's advancements in the magnetic tape field eventually provided the 3M company with a billion dollar industry.
Joseph Begun graduated in 1929 from the Institute of Technology in Berlin, Germany, where he wrote an important research book entitled Magnetic Recording. In 1934/35, Begun built the world's first tape recorder used for broadcasting. He later created the first consumer tape recorder called the Sound Mirror (patents 2,048,487; 2,048,488).

Over the course of his career, Joseph Begun continued the development of sound recording media and improved the coating paper and ferromagnetic powders used with magnetic sound tape.

In his "History of Magnetic Recording" Semi Joseph Begun had this to say about his own contributions: Magnetic recording was improved in Germany after World War I.
In 1928, Kurt Stille formed the Echophone Company with Karl Bauer and contracted with Ferdinand Schuchard AG and its talented engineer Semi Joseph Begun to manufacture the Dailygraph, the first cassette magnetic recorder. Semi Joseph Begun also developed the Stahltone-Bandmaschine steel tape recorder in 1935 for mobile radio broadcasting