The man who invented the stereo

In the Audiomiania blog on GT, we discussed the history of Hi-Fi stereo in post-war America in two parts ( 1 and 2 ).

This topic is somewhat reminiscent of our story about the return of "serialized" content in the form of podcasts - we discussed the emergence of radio and conversational programs in the post-war United States.
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Today we look at a slightly earlier historical period and talk about the man who invented the stereo.

This is about Alan Dower Blumlein, an English electronics engineer who was born in 1903 and is considered the inventor of stereo sound.

Some of his patents are used in stereo recordings that we listen to today. About 70 patents are registered in his name.

As his son, Simon Blumlein, said, when the inventor was in the movie with his wife, he turned to her and said that the blind man would never know where the characters are on the screen, since the whole sound comes in one direction from one speaker. But he came up with a solution. He called it “binaural sound,” which is now called “stereo.”

In 1934, he recorded the Mozart Symphony No. 41 and participated in the recording of the world's first film with stereo sound - “Trains at Hayes Station” in 1935.



Binaural microphones, known as the Blumlein pair , are another scientist’s invention.

Blumlein came up with a way to read two tracks of one gramophone record at once to get a stereo effect.

“He developed a holistic system from microphone and sound processing to speakers, so that we can actually feel the sound on the left or on the right; and also improved the cutting of vinyl records or, as they said, shellac. "

Blumlein's Stereo gained new life in 1956. It was a time when stereo became the most desirable purchase for middle-class families and a common part of home life.

Culture theorist George Steiner wrote in 1961: “The new wealthy middle class does not read much, but listens to music with undisguised pleasure.

Where bookshelves used to be, shelves with records of albums and elements of Hi-Fi equipment stand proudly now. ”

Considering the invention of Blumlein technology, which most of us now highly value every day, it is surprising that the inventor is virtually unknown outside the circle of people involved in recording.

He worked in telecommunications, television, and other areas of sound recording, and even created a radar that played its role during the war. Alan Blumlein died in 1942, crashing during a test flight on a bomber, which was supplied with the same radar.