Magnetic Toys and Demonstrations

Wire Recorder

Webster Chicago Model 80 Steel Wire Recorder

Magnetic recording dates back to 1878 when Oberlin Smith had the idea of recording telephone signals onto steel piano wire. The technology slowly progressed with the advent of electronics. In the 1930s steel wire recorders were becoming widely used in the news media as well as the military. Shortly after WWII the wire recorder began showing up as a household item in Europe and America.

The Applied Magnetics lab is proud to have one of the first commercially available wire recorders. The Webster Chicago Model 80 wire recorder is still in perfect operating condition, just as it was when it was first manufactured in 1945. When you visit the lab, be sure to take a minute and listen to the jazz music of the 1950s on our wire recorder.

Close-up of the wire spool

Audio fidelity of wire recordings made on the Webster Model 80 is comparable to a 78-rpm record or early-era tape recorders. Eventually the advent of oxide-based magnetic tape, with the capability of recording in stereo, caused wire recorders to become a part of history.

Wire Recorder links

• Webster Model 80 advertisement from 1948 Montgomery Ward Catalog (source: http://www.videointerchange.com/wire_recorder1.htm)
• Wire Recorder Information

Magnetic Hard Disk Media

The "Disc-o-mobile" suspended from the ceiling of the magnetics lab. These disc media represent 40 years of hard drive media history.

Affectionately called the "Disc-O-Mobile", this hanging sculpture represents 40 years of hard drive media history. There is a wide range of disc media showing the progression of technology.

The oldest hard drives used iron oxide particles (that's why the two big ones look reddish) to store the data. The more modern discs have particles made from newer magnetic alloys. With the newer magnetic particles, it is possible to make them smaller thus increasing density on the surface of the disk. The smallest disc on the disc-o-mobile (laptop computer hard disk) can hold much more than the older bigger discs.

Magnetic Cereal

Crushed cereal with high mineral content (iron) showing magnetic attraction to NdFeB magnets.

It's always good to get minerals in your diet.

This cereal is listed as having a high amount of iron. What they don't tell you though, is that the USDA does not regulate what form of iron can be added to food for mineral content. Many cereal manufacturers add iron filings to their cereal in order to advertise a high mineral content. The truth is that iron filings are not readily absorbed by the stomach so they have a minimal health benefit.

Our demo shows the iron in the cereal being attracted to a Neodymium Iron Boron (NdFeB) magnet.

...And Many More!