Frank Beacham's Journal

Akio Morita, co-founder of Sony and inventor of the Walkman portable music player, was born 102 years ago today

Akio Morita, co-founder of Sony and inventor of the Walkman portable music player, was born 102 years ago today.

A true inventor, in the rare mold of Steve Jobs at Apple and Amar Bose, founder of Bose, Morita’s unique vision resulted in products that changed the world. Sony’s decline as a great company began and continued after Morita’s death.

Born in Nagoya, Aichi, Japan, Morita’s family was involved in sake, miso and soy sauce production in the village of Kosugaya (currently a part of Tokoname City) on the western coast of Chita Peninsula in Aichi Prefecture since 1665. He was the oldest of four siblings and his father Kyuzaemon trained him as a child to take over the family business.

Akio, however, found his true calling in mathematics and physics. In 1944, he graduated from Osaka Imperial University with a degree in physics. He was later commissioned as a lieutenant in the Imperial Japanese Navy, and served in World War II. During his service, Morita met his future business partner, Masaru Ibuka, in the Navy's Wartime Research Committee.

On May 7, 1946, Morita and Ibuka founded Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha (Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corp., the forerunner of Sony) with about 20 employees. Morita's family invested in Sony during the early period and was the largest shareholder.

In 1949, the company developed magnetic recording tape and in 1950, sold the first tape recorder in Japan. In 1957, it produced a pocket-sized radio (the first to be fully transistorized).

In 1958, Morita and Ibuka decided to rename their company Sony (derived from "sonus" — Latin for "sound.”)

Since the early Sony radio was slightly too big to fit in a shirt pocket, Morita made his employees wear shirts with slightly larger pockets to give the radio a "pocket-sized" appearance.

In 1960, Sony produced the first transistor television in the world. In 1975, it released the first Betamax home video recorder, a year before VHS format came out.

In 1979, the Walkman was introduced, making it the world's first portable music player. In 1984, Sony launched the Discman series which extended their Walkman brand to portable CD products.

Morita moved his entire family to the United States in 1963 to learn American culture. He built a valuable network by continually socializing and giving parties during the week, a habit he maintained throughout his career. Morita followed art and music and was a sports fanatic.

In his 60s, he took up wind surfing and scuba diving and started skiing to ensure good exercise through the winter. He loved to water-ski and even crafted a water-resistant microphone on a handle, connected by a wire on the ski rope to a speaker on the boat so he could relay instructions to his wife, Yoshiko.

To simply have a good time, he would invent and perfect products. The Walkman is just such an invention. Morita watched as his children and their friends played music from morning until night. He noticed people listening to music in their cars and carrying large stereos to the beach and the park.

Sony's engineering department was generally opposed to the concept of a tape player without a recording function (it would be added later), but Morita would not be denied. He insisted on a product that sounded like a high-quality car stereo yet was portable and allowed the user to listen while doing something else — thus the name Walkman.

It is this contrary vision lacking at Sony since Morita’s death.

Morita suffered a stroke in 1993, during a game of tennis. On November 25, 1994, he stepped down as Sony chairman.

On October 3, 1999, Morita died of pneumonia at the age of 78.

Canned beer made its debut on this day in 1935 — 88 years ago today

Drinking the first canned beer in 1935

Canned beer made its debut on this day in 1935 — 88 years ago today.

In partnership with the American Can Company, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company delivered 2,000 cans of Krueger's Finest Beer and Krueger's Cream Ale to faithful Krueger drinkers in Richmond, Virginia.

Ninety-one percent of the drinkers approved of the canned beer, driving Krueger to give the green light to further production. By the late 19th century, cans were instrumental in the mass distribution of foodstuffs, but it wasn't until 1909 that the American Can Company made its first attempt to can beer.

This was unsuccessful, and the American Can Company would have to wait for the end of Prohibition in the United States before it tried again. Finally in 1933, after two years of research, American Can developed a can that was pressurized and had a special coating to prevent the fizzy beer from chemically reacting with the tin.

The concept of canned beer proved to be a hard sell, but Krueger's overcame its initial reservations and became the first brewer to sell canned beer in the United States. The response was overwhelming.

Within three months, over 80 percent of distributors were handling Krueger's canned beer, and Krueger's was eating into the market share of the "big three" national brewers — Anheuser-Busch, Pabst and Schlitz. Competitors soon followed suit, and by the end of 1935, over 200 million cans had been produced and sold.

The purchase of cans, unlike bottles, did not require the consumer to pay a deposit. Cans were also easier to stack, more durable and took less time to chill. As a result, their popularity continued to grow throughout the 1930s, and then exploded during World War II, when U.S. brewers shipped millions of cans of beer to soldiers overseas.

After the war, national brewing companies began to take advantage of the mass distribution that cans made possible, and were able to consolidate their power over the once-dominant local breweries, which could not control costs and operations as efficiently as their national counterparts.

Today, canned beer accounts for approximately half of the $20 billion U.S. beer industry. Not all of this comes from the big national brewers. In recent years, there has been renewed interest in canning from microbrewers and high-end beer-sellers, who are realizing that cans guarantee purity and taste by preventing light damage and oxidation.

Thanks History.com

On this day in 1957 — 66 years ago — the Wham-O toy company rolled out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs — now known to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees

On this day in 1957 — 66 years ago — the Wham-O toy company rolled out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs — now known to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees.

The story of the Frisbee began in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where William Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871. Students from nearby universities would throw the empty pie tins to each other, yelling “Frisbie!” as they let go.

In 1948, Walter Frederick Morrison and his partner, Warren Franscioni, invented a plastic version of the disc called the “Flying Saucer” that could fly further and more accurately than the tin pie plates.

After splitting with Franscioni, Morrison made an improved model in 1955 and sold it to the new toy company Wham-O as the “Pluto Platter” — an attempt to cash in on the public craze over space and Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).

In 1958, a year after the toy’s first release, Wham-O — the company behind such top-sellers as the Hula-Hoop, the Super Ball and the Water Wiggle — changed its name to the Frisbee disc, misspelling the name of the historic pie company.

A company designer, Ed Headrick, patented the design for the modern Frisbee in December, 1967, adding a band of raised ridges on the disc’s surface — called the Rings — to stabilize flight. By aggressively marketing Frisbee-playing as a new sport, Wham-O sold over 100 million of its famous toys by 1977.

In 1967, high school students in Maplewood, New Jersey, invented Ultimate Frisbee, a cross between football, soccer and basketball. In the 1970s, Headrick himself invented Frisbee Golf, in which discs are tossed into metal baskets. There are now hundreds of courses in the U.S., with millions of devotees.

There is also Freestyle Frisbee, with choreographed routines set to music and multiple discs in play, and various Frisbee competitions for both humans and dogs — the best natural Frisbee players.

Today, at least 60 manufacturers produce the flying discs — generally made out of plastic and measuring roughly 8 to 10 inches in diameter with a curved lip.

The official Frisbee is owned by Mattel Toy Manufacturers, who bought the toy from Wham-O in 1994.

Owsley Stanley was born 88 years ago today

Owsley Stanley was born 88 years ago today.

Stanley played a pivotal role in the San Francisco counterculture of the 1960s. As a crafts-person, he became best known simply as “Owsley” – the LSD "cook" (underground chemist).

Under the professional name of "Bear," he worked with the Grateful Dead's international fan "family."

Bear was an early soundman for The Grateful Dead, a band he met when Ken Kesey invited them to an Owsley Acid test party. As their sound engineer, Bear frequently recorded live tapes behind his mixing board and helped "The Dead" become the first performers since Les Paul to custom-develop high-fidelity audio components and sound systems.

Stanley was the first private individual to manufacture mass quantities of LSD. Between 1965 and 1967, Stanley produced more than 1.25 million doses of LSD.

Stanley died in an automobile accident in Australia on March 12, 2011 at age 76.

Benjamin Franklin was born 317 years ago today

In this painting by Jason Heuser, Franklin battles Zeus for lightning

Benjamin Franklin was born 317 years ago today.

One of the founding fathers of the United States and in many ways was "the First American," Franklin was a renowned polymath. He was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman and diplomat.

As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity.

As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals and the Franklin stove, among other inventions.

Franklin facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphia's fire department and a university. He earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity. He was an author and spokesman in London for several colonies and the first United States Ambassador to France.

Franklin was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions and opposition to authoritarianism both political and religious, with the scientific and tolerant values of the Enlightenment.

In the words of historian Henry Steele Commager, "In Franklin could be merged the virtues of Puritanism without its defects, the illumination of the Enlightenment without its heat."

To Walter Isaacson, this makes Franklin "the most accomplished American of his age and the most influential in inventing the type of society America would become."

Franklin, always proud of his working class roots, became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies. With two partners, he published the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper that was known for its revolutionary sentiments and criticisms of the British policies.

He became wealthy publishing Poor Richard's Almanack and The Pennsylvania Gazette. Franklin was also the printer of books for the Moravians of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (1742 on).

Franklin's printed Moravian books (printed in German) are preserved, and can be viewed, at the Moravian Archives located in Bethlehem. Franklin visited Bethlehem many times and stayed at the Moravian Sun Inn. He played a major role in establishing the University of Pennsylvania and was elected the first president of the American Philosophical Society.

Franklin became a national hero in America when as agent for several colonies he spearheaded the effort to have Parliament in London repeal the unpopular Stamp Act.

An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired among the French as American minister to Paris and was a major figure in the development of positive Franco-American relations. His efforts to secure support for the American Revolution by shipments of crucial munitions proved vital for the American war effort.

For many years, he was the British postmaster for the colonies, which enabled him to set up the first national communications network. From 1785 to 1788, he served as governor of Pennsylvania. Toward the end of his life, he freed his own slaves and became one of the most prominent abolitionists.

His colorful life and legacy of scientific and political achievement, and status as one of America's most influential founding fathers, have seen Franklin honored on coinage and the $100 bill; warships; the names of many towns; counties; educational institutions; corporations and countless cultural references.

Rob Glaser, the father of streaming media, is 61 years old today

Photo by Frank Beacham

Rob Glaser, the father of streaming media, is 61 years old today.

In 1995, Glaser introduced a new technology called RealAudio, the first streaming audio over the Internet. Two years later, he introduced RealVideo, the first streaming video over the Internet.

At first it hiccuped and sputtered, but it was clear from the beginning that video had a future over the Internet. Before founding RealNetworks, his streaming media company, Glaser he had become a millionaire by working for Microsoft for ten years.

I was the first person to interview Glaser about his new technology. The idea of delivering audio programming over the internet was so new to me at the time that it took a lot to wrap my head around this totally new concept.

Interestingly, in later years, Glaser called on me first at press conferences because he felt I brought him good luck due that first interview he did with me in the beginning days of his company.

At the time, his PR person was Katie Cotton, who would go on to head Apple PR. His head of marketing was Maria Cantwell, now the U.S. Senator from Washington.

Later, Glaser became a major contributor to pro-Democratic organizations. He was the leading creditor to Air America Radio, loaning at least $9.8 million according to its bankruptcy filing.

Laurens Hammond, inventor of the Hammond Organ, was born 128 years ago today

Laurens Hammond, inventor of the Hammond Organ, was born 128 years ago today.

An engineer and inventor, Hammond’s inventions include not only the Hammond organ, but the Hammond clock and the world's first polyphonic musical synthesizer, the Novachord.

Born in Evanston, Illinois, to William Andrew and Idea Louise Strong Hammond, Hammond showed great technical prowess from an early age. His father, William, took his own life in 1898, ostensibly due to the pressures of running the First National Bank, which he had founded.

Upon her husband's death, Idea, who was an artist, relocated to France with Laurens to further her studies. It was during their stay in France that Laurens began developing many of his early inventions. When the family returned to Evanston, Laurens, then 14, was as fluent in French and German as he was in his native tongue.

By this time, he had already designed a system for automatic transmission for automobiles. At his mother's suggestion, he submitted his designs to engineers at French automaker, Renault, only to be rejected. Hammond studied mechanical engineering at Cornell University, and was a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity. He graduated with honors in 1916.

After World War I, Hammond moved to Detroit, where he was chief engineer for the Gray Motor Company, a manufacturer of marine engines. A partner in the company, Col. John H. Poole, with whom Hammond had served in the war in France, knew of his engineering skills, and paid him an extra $300 a week under the table to stay with Gray Motor.

In 1919, Hammond invented a silent spring-driven clock. This invention brought him enough money to leave Gray Motor Company and rent his own space in New York City. In 1922, Hammond invented the Teleview system of shutter glasses in association with 3D films. One feature was made for the system, a film called Radio-Mania.

Hammond premiered his show at the Selwyn Theatre in New York in December, 1922 to critical acclaim, but the cost of installing the expensive machinery in the theater killed the project. In 1928, Hammond founded the Hammond Clock Company, after designing a synchronous clock motor that was inspired by Henry Warren's Telechrons, but was not self-starting. These clocks were still popular in Britain in the 1960s, because they would not display a false time.

Hammond's clock business ran into difficulties in the early 1930s, and he struggled to save it with a number of other inventions, such as an electric bridge table and, slightly later, his famous organ.

In 1933, he bought a used piano, and proceeded to discard everything apart from the keyboard action. Using the keyboard as a controller, he was able to experiment with various sound-generating methods until he found the best one — the tonewheel generator.

The company's assistant treasurer, W. L. Lahey, was the organist at the nearby St. Christopher's Episcopal Church, and Hammond consulted him concerning the quality of the new instrument's sound. Thanks to Hammond's prior manufacturing and engineering experience, the tonewheel generator was extremely well-engineered by the time the organ finally went into production.

The number of tonewheel organs still in regular use in the 21st century is a testament to the quality of the design and execution of the product. Hammond filed his patent application on January 19, 1934. At that time, unemployment was a major problem due to the Great Depression, and with this in mind, the Patent Office rushed to grant Hammond's application, with the hope of creating jobs in the area.

In 1954, the famous B-3 organ was introduced with the addition of a harmonic percussion feature. Many players preferred to play the B-3 through a rotating speaker cabinet known, after several name changes, as a Leslie speaker, after its inventor Donald J. Leslie. The Leslie system is an integrated speaker/amplifier combination in which sound is emitted by a rotating horn over a stationary treble compression driver, and a rotating baffle beneath a stationary bass woofer.

This creates a characteristic sound because of the constantly changing pitch shifts that result from the Doppler effect created by the moving sound sources. Leslie initially tried to sell his invention to Laurens Hammond, but Hammond was unimpressed and declined to purchase it.

Hammond modified his interface connectors to be "Leslie-proof," but Leslie quickly engineered a workaround. The Leslie company was sold to CBS in 1965 and was finally bought by Hammond in 1980. Hammond-Suzuki acquired the rights to Leslie in 1992, which continues to make the original 122 speakers and a variety of other products.

Laurens Hammond was awarded the Franklin Institute's John Price Wetherill Medal in 1940 for the invention of the Hammond electric organ. Hammond left his position as president of his company in 1955, to allow himself more time to concentrate on researching and developing new ideas. On February 12, 1960, at the age of sixty-five, he retired.

At the time of his retirement in 1960, he held ninety patents. He would be granted another twenty before his death at age 78 in 1973.

Albert Hofmann, father of LSD, was born 117 years ago

Illustration by Alex Grey

Albert Hofmann, father of LSD, was born 117 years ago.

Hofmann was a Swiss scientist known best for being the first person to synthesize, ingest and learn of the psychedelic effects of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).

Hofmann also was the first to isolate, synthesize and name the principal psychedelic mushroom compounds: psilocybin and psilocin. He authored more than 100 scientific articles and a number of books, including LSD: My Problem Child.

In 2007, he was ranked a shared first place, alongside Tim Berners-Lee, in The Telegraph's list of 100 greatest living geniuses.

He died in 2008.

On this day — 255 years ago — Englishman Philip Astley staged the first modern circus in London

Astley’s Amphitheatre

On this day — 255 years ago — Englishman Philip Astley staged the first modern circus in London.

Trick riders, acrobats, clowns, trained animals and other familiar components of the circus have existed throughout recorded history, but it was not until the late 18th century that the modern spectacle of the circus was born.

Astley, a former cavalry sergeant major, found that if he galloped in a tight circle, centrifugal force allowed him to perform seemingly impossible feats on a horse's back. He drew up a ring and on January 9, 1768, invited the public to see him wave his sword in the air while he rode with one foot on the saddle and one on the horse's head.

Astley's trick riding received such a favorable response that he soon hired other equestrians, a clown and musicians and in 1770 built a roof over his ring and called the structure Astley's Amphitheatre.

In 1772, Astley went to Versailles to perform his "daring feats of horsemanship" before King Louis XV, and he found France ripe for a permanent show of its own, which he founded in 1782.

Also in 1782, a competitor in London set up shop just down the road from Astley's Amphitheatre, calling his show the "Royal Circus," after the Roman name for the circular theaters where chariot races were held.

In the 19th century, the term "circus" was adopted as a generic name for this new form of entertainment. Astley, who lived until 1814, eventually established 18 other circuses in cities across Europe.

In 1792, English equestrian John Bill Ricketts opened the first American circus in Philadelphia and later opened others in New York City and Boston. President George Washington reportedly attended a Ricketts circus and sold the company a horse.

Smaller traveling circuses arose in Europe in the early 19th century, visiting towns and cities that lacked elaborate permanent shows. Larger traveling tent shows evolved in the 1820s.

In 1859, the Cirque Napoleon in Paris offered the first "flying trapeze" act, which remains a popular component of the modern circus.

In 1871, William Cameron Coup and showman, P.T. Barnum, opened an enormous circus in Brooklyn that they dubbed "The Greatest Show on Earth." Ten years later, Barnum went into business with James Anthony Bailey. The "Barnum and Bailey" circuses were so large they required simultaneous performances in three rings.

In 1884, the five Ringling brothers staged their first circus, and they soon were buying out other circus companies, including Barnum and Bailey, which they purchased in 1907. During the next three decades, the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows grew into the largest touring organization in the world, with hundreds of tents and an army of workers and performers.

The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey downsized after World War II, but continued until 2017. With weakening attendance and high operating costs, the circus closed on May 21, 2017 after 146 years.

Canada's Cirque du Soleil, which gave an artistic sensibility to its acrobatic acts while shunning the use of animals, was an innovative circus development of the late 20th century.

Thanks History.com

On this day in 1838 — 185 years ago — Samuel Morse's telegraph system was demonstrated for the first time at the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, New Jersey

Samuel Morse telegraphs his signature at the Academy of Music in New York City

On this day in 1838 — 185 years ago — Samuel Morse's telegraph system was demonstrated for the first time at the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, New Jersey.

The telegraph, a device which used electric impulses to transmit encoded messages over a wire, would eventually revolutionize long-distance communication, reaching the height of its popularity in the 1920s and 1930s.

In 1843, Morse convinced a skeptical Congress to fund the construction of the first telegraph line in the United States, from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore. In May, 1844, Morse sent the first official telegram over the line, with the message: "What hath God wrought!"

However, Henry David Thoreau had a longer range view of the telegraph, as well as the telecommunications technology that came after it. In 1854, Thoreau wrote these immortal words:

“Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end… We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.”

Amen!