#Totally legal sapphire for after effects full
Stereophonic reproduction was already a reality.Īlan Dower Blumlein in England had patented each of the steps necessary for stereophonic recording in 1931 whilst, virtually simultaneously, Harvey Fletcher at the Bell Telephone Laboratories in America had perfected the same process and was able to give a full public demonstration in April of 1933.Ĭentral to the Pierce and Hunt anticipation was that 'vinylite' microgroove records would inevitably arrive, but would not displace coarse groove shellac records overnight. and had 0.0062 inch grooves tapering at 87° to a curved bottom of 0.0015 inches. At the time, conventional shellac records ran at 78 r.p.m. In a paper published in April 1938 Pierce and Hunt at Harvard University proposed the development of 'vinylite' based microgroove sound recordings utilising appropriately profiled styli. As early as 1939 steel phonograph and gramophone needles were gradually being replaced by ground gem stones, sintered or 'reconstituted' sapphire and synthetic sapphire (Aluminium oxide) styli. Meyer in the US had patented a flat tip carbon steel and jewel stylus for Berliner disc recordings in 1907, and Edison had employed diamonds as cutter and tracking stylus in his improved phonograph of 1911. There seems little doubt that her experiments included the use of gem styli for playing back recordings, as well as cutting the masters. During this time Marie appears to have been closely involved in experiments with different methods for replaying master discs made with the company's equipment. Within a year of the outbreak of war in 1939, special steel was in short supply and Marie's company won a number of contracts to provide the civilian and armed services with gem cutter disc recording equipment (presumably for use in recording air and ground traffic communications and coded transmissions). Careful design was needed to ensure that the head cut the groove with the utmost precision to retain replay fidelity. Hardened steels were precision ground to form a chisel 'V' cutter.
Of particular interest were disc cutting systems, and the tricky business of master disc cutting styli. Later, in 1938, she raised £300 as base capital and started a small engineering firm in Putney, London, manufacturing sound recording equipment.
Against her father's wishes she experimented in sound recording techniques. Whilst in Belgium and Holland, as a young girl, her father coached her in precision engineering and she studied sound recording in Antwerp. There is little hard evidence for her roots, yet we are able to establish some background.īorn Marie Louise Benson (by her own admission) in 1918(?) she spoke of her father John Benson as an engineer. To say that Marie's origins are obscure understates matters. In any event her story, though it has no happy ending, has left her immortalised in the history books - as an enduring example of how determination and tenacity can be squandered through lack of realism and self-restraint.
Which one, if any, was the instigator of the others can only be guessed at. Which one she genuinely and naturally held claim to still remains a mystery. In just over 4 years, between 19, when she was in the public gaze, Marie managed to portray four distinct roles - ingenious engineer, destitute widow, tenacious litigate and flamboyant profligate. Thus began the famous, and subsequently infamous, patent case of Killick vs Pye, made the more bizarre by the paucity of authentic information surrounding the case, and the behaviour of the central character, the remarkable Marie Louise Killick. The Pye management were staggered.Įxecutives privy to the indictment were incredulous, amazed both that the Pye Company stood accused of commercial piracy, and that the plaintiff in question was a woman! The lawyers had been instructed to serve notice that sales of certain Pye Company styli, essential for replaying disc recordings, infringed their clients 1945 patent covering not only sapphire styli but specifically 'universal' styli with a specialised tip profile and side geometry.
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