AEG Band Machines

History

In 1928, Fritz Pfleumer developed a device at AEG that could play phonetic transcriptions. The idea came, as so often in history, from a completely different cause: He developed for the Dresden cigarette machine factory Universelle a way to apply a bronze coating to the paper mouthpiece of the cigarette. This idea led to an attempt to try the whole thing with iron dust instead of bronze - the tape under patent number DRP 54430 instead of the steel tape was born.

In 1932, this "tape recorder" was further developed by Eduard Schüller into a first series-produced device. His development focus was on the sound head and led to the patent "Magnetizing head for longitudinal magnetization of magnetogram carriers" and was registered in December 1933. BASF]] supported the development in the direction of an improved tape on the carrier base made of synthetic material.

With the support of the Berlin colleague Theodor Volk, the device could be developed. The tape running turned out to be a big challenge, especially during winding the tapes broke. This problem was solved by using 3 motors. At the radio exhibition in August 1935, AEG was able to celebrate its premiere and present the world's first functioning tape recorder, the AEG Magnetophon K1.


In the course of restructuring after the war, AEG handed over the magnetophone business to the subsidiary Telefunken on October 1, 1954.

AEG K-series

The 1932 developed device was further developed up to the year 1935 and on the radio exhibition in Berlin as the first industrially manufactured reel-to-reel tape recorder / tape machine of the public demonstrated. Unfortunately, all 4 devices were destroyed by a fire in the exhibition hall, however, it could be manufactured with remaining parts a further (fifth) device. There are no photos of this machine. Photos appear on the net. However, these are reproductions or retouchings. Also the device shown in later TELEFUNKEN brochures is a K2 type, advertised as the "first tape recorder in the world". The "K" refers to the case design, i.e. a transportable device.


AEG FT series

The devices were also offered as FT-devices. The difference is in the case: the FT-unit was built into a decorative wooden case and was intended for stationary, i.e. fixed operation. A difference is also the remote control unit, today one would say remote control (encoder). While the buttons for start/stop etc. were integrated in the case, the FT series came with a separate bakelite unit. In this unit the wired control buttons were located in a more pleasing design. In addition, the approximate tape position is transmitted to a voltmeter via a potentiometer on the unit, so that the progress of the tape run can also be tracked on the control unit (a kind of electrical counter).

The target group was the new broadcasting companies, but also operators of event halls for recording speeches of all kinds or plays as radio plays. A dictation function is also conceivable, but rather unlikely due to the price-performance ratio.

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