[QuadList] History - what is the REAL story

[Ted Langdell]

  On Apr 30, 2009, at 7:39 PM, DCFWTX at aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 4/30/2009 7:33:51 PM Pacific Daylight Time, park at videopark.com 
>  writes:
>
>> So did RCA use Colson's ideas or their own invention?
>
>
> That is a good point. Did RCA arrive at the same idea  
> simultaneously, or did they have to license from Ampex the  
> technology? Was there yet another "trade"?
>
> David
> www.dcvideo.com

One could compare the Ampex circuits with the circuits in RCA machines  
that came out at the same time or later than these Ampex developments  
did... to see whether RCA was making use of the Ampex ideas and patents.

The take I get from Albert Abramson's book "The History of Television,  
1942-2000" is that each had access to the other's patents pertaining  
to video recording.

Abramson wrote on page 78 (bottom right column):  "... a cross- 
licensing agreement was signed on October 14, 1957, which gave each  
party royalty-free rights to domestic and foreign patents and  
applications of the other party as these inventions pertained to the  
videotape apparatus."

In a somewhat redundant paragraph on the next page, he follows the  
redundant material with... "This gave RCA the rights to use any of  
Ampex's further patents or applications without further payment. This  
was a disaster for Ampex, as it was to come up with may innovative  
ideas that RCA was free to use, copy and sell."

His chapter notes for that aspect (P. 272 Chapter 4, fn's 16 and 17)  
state that the deal allowed RCA "to copy and use all of the Ampex  
improvements that came out in the following ten years. Everything from  
Intersync, Amtec, Colortec, Electronic Editing, Velocity Error  
Compensator and of course the high-Band system that Ampex had  
developed."

It's not clear from either the text or footnotes what is/are the  
source/s of that assertion.  I don't see reference to a signed copy of  
the document, which may or may not exist anymore.

Did RCA actually do use those Ampex developments? Some of our folks  
who've used both types of first and second generation machines could  
likely address that issue.

Abramson's take on Ampex using RCA's concepts is that Ampex was too  
scared of violating RCA's patent's on the color system to pull some  
knowledge the other direction.

Abramson's chapter notes also reports that RCA applied for two patents  
based on the Ampex machine in Oct. 1957, which Ampex did not know  
about. Abramson was surprised that they were granted by the patent  
office in 1961.  See A. C. Schroeder, Patent 2,979,557 and E. M  
Layton, Patent 2,979,558.

The Schroeder patent emphasizes color television recording and makes  
use of the word color frequently. It begins by talking about dealing  
with velocity errors, but by the second page of text has spread to the  
transverse recording method.  I'll leave it to someone else to pore  
through the pages and analyze whether it is a direct copy of what  
Ampex developed (or patented), and what it actually covers.

The Leyton patent covers the heterodyne method of stabilizing the  
color information when played back from transverse scan recordings.

The book's chapter notes are as fascinating in parts as the book text  
itself, and point readers to sources of information that may remain  
available for research, or might be on-line.

That much of the text of Abramson's book is readable on Google is  
good. It caused me to buy the book... for around $75.

A book reviewer would probably have opined that Abramson should have  
done a better job of keeping the text chronological and better  
compiled.  There's a tendency to pursue a thread from one date/event  
to another... then jump back to the date or event and go down a  
somewhat similar avenue, sometimes with different dates involved.

On page 76, the arrival of the first of three NBC-ordered Ampex  
machines at NBC Burbank is cited as Dec. 13, 1956.  The next page  
cites a different source (January, 1957 Broadcasting Magazine) saying  
they arrived on Dec. 14, 1956.  That same section has NBC doing time- 
zone delay using the Ampex machines beginning the week of Jan. 15, 1957.

What does emerge from the chronology Abramson presents is that by  
August of 1957, RCA had color working on a machine at RCA Labs in  
Camden. Ampex's Charles Ginsburg was one of the people present during  
the August 15 demo, and is quoted by Paul Fuher as saying that "enough  
of he mechanism could be seen to determine that they (RCA) had used  
much of the essential mechanism of the Ampex recorder."

The idea of cross-licensing was floated shortly afterward, and by  
October, '57, the agreement was signed.

RCA introduced it's engineering prototype machine two weeks later...  
playing color via network to New York and Burbank.  RCA's product  
didn't look much like an Ampex machine at that point... but wouldn't  
have been possible without the FM recording system and Ampex's  
perfection of it (in 1957 terms.)

One can wonder what might have happened had Ampex NOT signed the  
document.

Ted

Ted Langdell
Secretary
Skype: 	TedLangdell
e-mail:	ted at quadvideotapegroup.com

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