Marvin Camras 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 bj1930s for a cousin who was an aspiring singer. 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 is now Illinois Institute of Technology and was offered a position at Armour Research Foundation to develop his work.
Before and during World War II Camras' early 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 US Patent number 2351004, 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.20
|