From Mary Bellis,
Your Guide to Inventors.
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A pioneer in the early history of magnetic tape recording, Semi Joseph Begun's advancements in the magnetic tape field eventually provided the 3M company with a billion dollar industry.

Joseph Begun graduated in 1929 from the Institute of Technology in Berlin, Germany, where he wrote an important research book entitled Magnetic Recording. In 1934/35, Begun built the world's first tape recorder used for broadcasting. He later created the first consumer tape recorder called the Sound Mirror (patents 2,048,487; 2,048,488).

Over the course of his career, Joseph Begun continued the development of sound recording media and improved the coating paper and ferromagnetic powders used with magnetic sound tape.

In his "History of Magnetic Recording" Semi Joseph Begun had this to say about his own contributions: Magnetic recording was improved in Germany after World War I. In 1928, Kurt Stille formed the Echophone Company with Karl Bauer and contracted with Ferdinand Schuchard AG and its talented engineer Semi Joseph Begun to manufacture the Dailygraph, the first cassette magnetic recorder. Semi Joseph Begun also developed the Stahltone-Bandmaschine steel tape recorder in 1935 for mobile radio broadcasting