Long before anyone glued rust to a strip of plastic
and called it recording
tape, audio was recorded on spools of wire.
In one episode of "The Secret Life of Machines", Tim played with magnetic
recording. He recorded a little bit of info on a bandsaw, he stuck some rust
to scotch tape and recorded on it, and visited a BBC warehouse where they
had some truly amazing video recorders (large reels of steel band instead
of tape).
It's a shame the Discovery channel doesn't show those anymore.
Roger Ivie
ivie(a)cc.usu.edu