HOW DOES A TAPE RECORDER WORK?
A tape recorder basically works through an electromagnet that applies a magnetic flux or pattern to the oxide on the tape. The oxide permanently remembers this flux. The electromagnet consists of an iron core wrapped with wire. During recording, the audio signal is sent through this coil of wire to produce a magnetic field, and that field creates a pattern when it jumps the gap between the magnet and the coil, which magnetizes the oxide on the tape. During playback, the motion of the tape pulls a varying magnetic field across the gap between the coil and the magnet. This creates a varying field in the magnet and therefore changes the audio signal in the coil, thus producing the sound that travels to the speakers. The recorder consists of two sprockets that engage the spools in the tape. These spin one of the spools to either record, playback, fast-forward, or reverse. Below the two sprockets are two heads. One is an erase head which wipes the tape clean prior to recording, the other he
Introduction Tape recorders are devices used to record and play back audio signals stored on tape inside of plastic cassettes. Sound vibration causes movement of the diaphragm in the microphone, which creates electrical pulse patterns. The pulses flow through electromagnets that touch a moving tape encased in a plastic cassette. The tape is coated with a metal powder, which changes with fluctuations of the magnetic field. Each fluctuation represents a sound that is recorded on the tape permanently unless erased or overwritten. Playing back a tape works in the opposite way, with tape signals flowing to the tape head, creating electrical pulses that are boosted before being sent to the speakers. History The first recording tape was created by Friedrich Matthias of IG Farben/BASF in Germany in 1935. Magnetic tape recorders were developed in the 1940s by the Brush Development Company, and magnetic tape media was developed by the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company. The Tape Tape is
