Today is VCR day!

That’s right, a day dedicated to the technology that entertained your parents and probably you as a child.

The VCR has gracefully given way to digital video recorders, but it has left an imprint in the history of technology that will be difficult erase.

And here’s one of the earliest versions of this technology where the magnetic tape reading unit is built right into the cathode ray tube that displays the video images.

Patent Information

US2165307
Means for translating magnetic variations into electric variations

Inventors: Skellett, Albert M.
Application Number: US13406737A
Publication Date: 07/11/1939
Filing Date: 03/31/1937
Assignee: BELL TELEPHONE LABOR INC

Abstract: This invention relates to means for transforming magnetic variations into electric variations and more specifically to means for “reading” a magnetic record upon which signals representative of the light-tone values of a picture or view are recorded. When an ordinary magnetic pick-up device…