The Webster Chicago Corporation was a maker of electronic equipment in Chicago, Illinois. Many products were sold under the brand name Webcor. The product line included record changers, wire recorders and reel to reel tape recorders.
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They also made phonograph amplifiers that are now used as guitar amplifiers in some cases. These amplifiers' sounds are similar to the sounds of the Fender Princeton.[citation needed] They are valued for their all-tube signal path and hand-wired circuit. Many Webster-Chicago record changers were installed in Magnavox home entertainment systems in the 1940s and early 1950s.[citation needed]
Their leading business was wire recorders. They purchased the rights to produce recorders in 1945 from the Armour Research Foundation.[1] Webster-Chicago simplified the design and developed a recorder that sold for only $150, half the price of competing models.[2] By the 1950s it was the leading manufacturer of wire recorders in the United States.[3]
The wire recorder business was short-lived. In 1952 Webcor introduced its first magnetic tape recorder, and by 1955 magnetic tape recorders overtook wire ones.[4]
In the 1960s the firm began to face strong competition from German and Japanese imports. It was purchased by US Industries in 1967, and faded from prominence in the 1970s.[citation needed]
References
edit- ^ Anand Kumar Sethi. The Business of Electronics: A Concise History. Palgrave Macmillan, Nov 19, 2013. p. 90
- ^ David Morton. Off the Record: The Technology and Culture of Sound Recording in America. Rutgers University Press, 2000. pg. 95
- ^ Anand Kumar Sethi. The Business of Electronics: A Concise History. Palgrave Macmillan, Nov 19, 2013. pg. 90
- ^ David Morton. Off the Record: The Technology and Culture of Sound Recording in America. Rutgers University Press, 2000. p. 95