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January 27, 1948: Wire Recording introduced the 'Wireway'

 
January 27, 1948: The first magnetic tape recorder was introduced by Wire Recording Corporation of America.  ‘Wire Way,’ as it was called, had an integrated oscillator and was sold for $149.50 at the time.

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  2. Could you please provide the source of this information and photo? I cannot find any other references besides direct copies of what is shown here. "Wire Recording Corporation of America" is not mentioned in any histories of tape recording that I know of, and in any case, there were tape recorders using oxide-coated tapes as early as 1935 (AEG Magnetophon), not to mention earlier steel tape recorders such as the Blattnerphone of 1931. Note that some parts of the picture above have been drawn in, most notably the reels, and the machine looks overall 1930s or earlier; there were far less archaic machines already on the market by 1948. All very strange.

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