This portable cassette recorder was designed by the noted industrial designer John Vassos (1898-1985). Born in Romania to Greek parents, Vassos came to the US in 1919 and began studying design. Famous ...

A 1958 RCA cassette recorder. Video Interchange. Early recording technologies were all pure analog, ... In the 1950s, reel-to-reel analog tape recorders were used at home and by studios.

Mr. Ottens’s cassette tape was about half the width of RCA’s tape cartridge, which had been released in 1958, and ran at half speed, requiring less tape and further cutting down on size.

In the early 1960s, technology companies like Phillips began experimenting with condensing reel-to-reel tape players and recorders into something that could be carried around and used by a layperson.

Ottens’s cassette tape was about half the width of RCA’s tape cartridge, which had been released in 1958, and ran at half speed, requiring less tape and further cutting down on size.