[ This is a portion of the correspondence from Dr. Clarence
 [ Hickman to his great niece, Judy, provided to MMDigest through
 [ the generosity of Dr. Hickman's family and MMDer James Brady.

June 3, 1978

Dear Judy:

When I went to the Bell Labs the first job I was put on was magnetic
recording of sound.  They gave me a machine invented by a man in Sweden.
It was called a Telegraphone.  It used piano wire and the wire had to
be run at a speed of about six feet per second to get much out of it.

I immediately suggested that we should use tape and put the pole pieces
opposite each other and used tape that was 1/8 inch wide and .001 inches
in thickness.  With this system I was able to reduce the speed to about
nine inches per second and get very much better records.  I claim that
this did not require much brain.  I am no wizard.

Clarence