Alan Dower Blumlein – new sound quality

Alan Blumlein was born on 29 June 1903 in London. Reportedly, he started his career as early as the age of 7, when he “billed” his father as an “electrical engineer” while playing. He studied at the City and Guilds College, and his excellent academic results helped him obtain a scholarship.

His first job was at International Western Electric, a company associated with Ball Labs. His research into frequencies helped reduce the losses and interferences in long-distance telephone lines. Blumlein’s numerous inventions, such as the charging coil and the AC measuring bridge, were used until mobile telephony became popular. At the end of the 1920s, Blumlein joined the research team of the Columbia Graphophone Company, which a few years later became Electric and Musical Industries, more widely known as EMI, one of the largest record companies in the world. The microphones he developed were used not only by the label itself, but also by the BBC, among others.

Blumlein and stereophonic sound

In 1931, Alan Blumlein developed the system that we call stereophonic sound today. Pairs of microphones were used to record it. Just two years later, the first stereo recordings made it possible to improve the quality of sound reception significantly, and in 1935, the system found its way into cinemas. Interestingly, and just like in the case of many of the technologies we have already described, this invention, too, came about somewhat by accident. Blumlein came up with the idea during an evening out at the cinema with his wife. Interestingly, in 2017 he was posthumously awarded a Grammy for this invention.

128 patents and top-secret assignments

Blumlein was a very talented and hard-working engineer, and his career came at a time of the rapid growth in television and radio. In the case of both those media, the inventor contributed significantly to increasing their capabilities and improving the quality of the broadcast signal. In nearly 10 years, he was granted almost 130 patents and gained recognition as an outstanding specialist. This drew the attention of the military and indirectly contributed to the inventor’s death.

The early 1940s were the time of the most intense warfare between Britain and the Third Reich. Radar systems played a key role in the defense against the Luftwaffe and the subsequent attacks on Germany. Blumlein became actively involved in the development of these devices. One of his greatest achievements was his work on the H2S radar. This was a device that made it possible to detect ground targets even in very difficult weather conditions or at night. It was used, for example, in Halifax bombers that carried out raids on German cities. Blumlein, however, did not live to see this moment. In June 1942, he was killed during a test flight of a bomber on which a prototype version of the radar was installed. It was a tragic accident, and details of the event were kept secret for a long time, as they could have an impact on the course of the war effort.

Blumlein’s untimely death ended his career, which had started off as a very fruitful one. The numerous inventions and patents he managed to develop significantly influenced the development of not only of television or radio, but also of communications. We will never know what solutions might have been developed had it not been for a tragic accident. Perhaps we would have enjoyed wireless systems and broadband Internet much sooner. Perhaps they would have a very different nature and capabilities today?

Radar in a hoover cleaner

It may be hard for us to imagine that a stereo system needed to be “invented”. After all, two-channel sound, even in installations such as a car sound system are a "pittance" these days. It has become such a common standard that stereo amplifiers are mass-produced in a chip format, and speakers are often sold in pairs. The same is true for television: although nowadays we use broadcast audiovisual transmissions less and less frequently (instead, we watch the multimedia in the form of streaming or files), capturing moving images with a smartphone is one of our favourite ways to commemorate important life events. Meanwhile, if we look deep into the optoelectronic circuits used to record video, we find that they work on a very similar principle to the technology developed by the British inventor, i.e. by measuring the intensity of light falling on successive dots arranged in a matrix. The fact that the electronic camera is today a product (or even a component) that is cheap and very simple to use/implement is just a matter of semiconductor development. The same is true of radars, which also, as photoelectric distance sensors, are no longer top-secret army projects. Now, a miniaturised radar is a part of an automatic hoover cleaner or a low-cost module that hobbyists can use in their prototypes.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Alan Blumlein’s work is how quickly his inventions found applications not only in the field of science, but also in everyday life. The fact that they focused on improved information transfer is also significant. Thanks to such inventors, every person today has a chance to hear and see more in their life, quite literally.