Ray Bay <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>The first patent wasn't the first stereo or the first usable stereo.

I thought that a patent was a legal certification to establish the rights
of, and made by, the first user or inventor.  Silly me!

>The stereo that was introduced commercially in late 1958 and early 1959
>came from the later inventions of Harvey Fletcher.  I am talking about
>modern commercially recorded stereo.  We were talking about actual
>recorded stereo and where recordings might be.  I maintain that pre-1954
>was too early because the reproduction techniques were only possible
>with engineers on hand.

So was I.  Mr.  Bayles appears to forget that by 1955 EMI had a fairly
substantial catalogue (available at retail) of commercial reel-to-reel 7.5
ips "stereosonic" tapes which did not require the presence of an engineer
to be played in the home.

>Until the Fletcher's completed their work, the stereo recording simply
>jwas not commercially possible with enough sound quality to be reproduced.

After 40 years in the record business I never heard nor read of the name
of Fletcher but only that commercially viable stereo recording was well
in hand at Abbey Road by 1954/55.

Perhaps Mr.Bay can help us all by directing us to earlier (they'd be
American?) commercial recordings than these Abbey Road ones? Many of
the ones of which I know are still currently available.

John G. Deacon
Home page: www.ctv.es/USERS/j.deacon