American electrical engineer and inventor (1916–1995)
Marvin Camras
Born
(1916-01-01)January 1, 1916
Chicago
Died
June 23, 1995(1995-06-23) (aged 79)
Evanston, Illinois
Education
Illinois Institute of Technology
Occupation
Engineer
Spouse
Isabelle Pollak Camras
Children
Robert A. Camras, Carl B. Camras, Louis E. of Camras, and Michael D. Camras, and Ruth Camras Pikler
Engineering career
Discipline
Electrical engineer
Significant design
Wire recorder, multi-track tape recording
Awards
National Medal of Technology, 1990
Marvin Camras (January 1, 1916 – June 23, 1995) was an electrical engineer and inventor who was widely influential in the field of magnetic recording.
Camras built his first recording device, a wire recorder, in the 1930s for a cousin who was an aspiring opera singer named Willy. He also built Willy a telephone, because he could not afford one, at the age of 8. Shortly afterwards he discovered that using magnetic tape made the process of splicing and storing recordings easier.
Camras's work attracted the notice of his professors at what became Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and was offered a position at Armour Research Foundation (which merged with Lewis Institute in 1940 to become IIT) to develop his work.
Before and during World War II Camras' wire recorders were used by the armed forces to train pilots. They were also used for disinformation purposes: battle sounds were recorded and amplified and the recordings placed where the D-Day invasion was not going to take place. This work was kept secret until after the war.
In June 1944 he was awarded U.S. patent 2,351,004,[1] titled "Method and Means of Magnetic Recording". In all, Camras received more than 500 patents, largely in the field of electronic communications.
Camras received a bachelor's degree in 1940 and a master's degree in 1942, both in electrical engineering, from IIT. In 1968, the institution awarded him an honorary doctorate.
In May 1962 Camras wrote a speculative prediction paper titled "Magnetic recording and reproduction - 2012 A.D.".[2] In his paper Camras predicted the existence of mass-produced portable media players he described as memory packs the size of a package of playing cards holding up to 1020 bits of information. Such devices would not have any mechanical moving parts and would store both sound and movies. He also predicted music and movie downloads, online shopping, access to online encyclopedias and newspapers and the widespread use of online banking transactions.
Camras built his own house by hand, doing everything except laying the foundation. He also built a bomb shelter in this house.
In recognition of his achievements, he received the National Medal of Technology award in 1990.
Marvin Camras died of kidney failure at the age of 79 in Evanston, Illinois.
^"US Patent number 2351004, "Method and Means of Magnetic Recording"". USPO. Retrieved January 16, 2008.
^Camras, Marvin (May 1, 1962). "Magnetic recording and reproduction – 2012 A.D.". Proceedings of the IRE. 50 (5): 639–640. doi:10.1109/JRPROC.1962.288062. S2CID 10858361.
MarvinCamras (January 1, 1916 – June 23, 1995) was an electrical engineer and inventor who was widely influential in the field of magnetic recording...
Camras is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: MarvinCamras (1916–1995), American electrical engineer and inventor Carl B. Camras (1953–2009)...
Chicago's Armour Research Foundation announced that its staffer, physicist MarvinCamras, had produced a three-channel machine with "three parallel magnetic...
paper on AC biasing in 1938 and received a Japanese patent in 1940. MarvinCamras (USA) also rediscovered high-frequency (AC) bias independently in 1941...
conventional magnetic recording (CMR) Shingled magnetic recording (SMR) MarvinCamras (1916–1995), American electrical engineer and inventor, major contributor...
engineering C Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton Theory of television MarvinCamras Magnetic recording John Renshaw Carson Single-sideband modulation James...
Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 16 July 1966. p. 69. ISSN 0006-2510. MarvinCamras, ed. (1985). Magnetic Tape Recording. Van Nostrand Reinhold. ISBN 978-0-442-21774-7...
Atanasoff "For his invention of the electronic digital computer…" 1990 MarvinCamras "For the development and commercialization of magnetic recording…" 1990...
the original (PDF) on October 12, 2013. Retrieved November 11, 2013. "MarvinCamras". Illinois Institute of Technology. Archived from the original on November...
original on May 20, 2020. Retrieved January 4, 2020. "NIHF Inductee MarvinCamras Invented Magnetic Recording". www.invent.org. April 6, 2024. Archived...
Volkmann (1966) Arnold P.G. Peterson (1968) William B. Snow (1968) MarvinCamras (1969) Rudy Bozak (1970) Leo Beranek (1971) Manfred R. Schroeder (1972)...
his BS degree in 1933 and went on to receive his MS degree from IIT. MarvinCamras 1940 Invented a way to produce high fidelity magnetic wire recordings...
1975 Ralph B. Peck, 1976 Michael Tenenbaum, 1977 Dixy Lee Ray, 1978 MarvinCamras, 1979 Neil Armstrong, 1980 John E. Swearingen, 1981 Manson Benedict...
Club Scandal Tom Campbell, U.S. Representative in California 1989–2001 MarvinCamras, inventor Larry Canada, NFL running back 1978–81 Tony Canadeo, halfback...
Conservation of Energy and Matter c-8m September 30, 1958 Laws of Gases MarvinCamras c-10m September 4, 1958 Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun Joel Marks...
School website Calmeca School website Daniel R. Cameron School website MarvinCamras School website Arthur E. Canty School website Lazaro Cardenas School...
first book devoted to digital magnetic recording. It was reviewed by MarvinCamras. An updated second edition co-authored with Jim Monson was published...
could remove the iron particles and allow critical media to be re-used. Magnetic Recording Handbook, MarvinCamras, Springer 1988, ISBN 0-442-26262-0...
example: U.S. Patent 3,564,154, issued February 16, 1971, by inventor MarvinCamras, for "Cathode Ray Tube Magnetic Reproducer For Video"; and more recently...
Burghley House during five weeks' secret filming in 2006; and actor, Lee Marvin, found himself camping in Ferry Meadows during the filming of The Dirty...
– Bruch, Walter – Brush, Charles F. – Burgess, Charles Frederick – Camras, Marvin – Campbell-Swinton, Alan Archibald – Carson, John Renshaw – Clapp, James...
Brian Johnson, Alan Hull, Sakima, and Neil Tennant lived in Newcastle. Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch were both former pupils of Rutherford Grammar School. Actors...
1901, Vol 12: Colonies and British Possessions, Africa, pp. 13–14 Camras, Marvin (1988). Magnetic Recording Handbook. Springer. p. 651. Clark, Mark H...
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