Vivid Audio V1w User Manual
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then installed in all Loews Theatres, then became the
standard established by the Academy.
1940 - Paul W. Klipsch filed patent No. 2,310,243 on Feb.
5, 1940, granted Feb. 9, 1943, for the corner horn
speaker.
1941 - Altec Lansing Corp. was formed when Altec bought
Lansing; Altec Service Corp. (from "all technical") had
been formed in 1938 by M. Conroe and George
Carrington to manage ERPI installations after ERPI was
dissolved. John Hilliard worked at Altec Lansing in 1943
on magnetic airborne sub detection and in 1945 put on the
market the 2-way "Voice of the Theater" speaker system with improved horns and
magnet drivers. See Lansing Heritage for images and a
detailed history.
Aztec A-7 Voice of the
Theatre, from Audio, Dec.
1961
1949 - W. E. Kock and F. K. Harvey at Bell Labs
developed the acoustical lens, and reported findings in
1949 JAES. These lenses are used in James B. Lansing
theater speakers and home hi-fi speakers
1953 - Arthur Janszen was granted patent No. 2,631,196
on March 10, 1953, for an electrostatic high-frequency
speaker
1954 - Acoustic Research introduced the small AR-1
bookshelf loudspeaker that used the acoustic suspension
principle developed by company co-founder Edgar
Villchur. This was soon followed by the $89 AR-2 and by the AR-3 with improved
domed tweeters in 1958.
Avery Fisher with 9-tube
amp and coaxial speaker,
from Fortune, Oct. 1946
1957 - Quad ESL marketed as the first full-range
electrostatic loudspeaker, designed by Peter Walker and
David Williamson, based on Edward W. Kellogg's patent
No. 1,983,377 filed September 17, 1929 and granted
December 4, 1934.
1974 - Earthquake premiered Nov. 15 in the Chinese
Theatre in Hollywood with Universal Picture's
Sensurround process developed by W. O. Watson and
Richard Stumpf at Universal. Four large low-frequency
horns were located behind the screen, two in each corner.
The Model W horn in each corner was 8 ft. long, 4 ft. wide, 4 ft. high. The Model C
horn in each corner was a modular unit 1 ft. wide and 5 ft. high. Two additional horns
were located on a platform in the rear of the theatre. Each horn was driven by a
1000-watt amplifier controlled by inaudible tones on a special optical control track
along with the normal 4-track magnetic soundtrack of the 35mm Panavision filmstrip.
Walker's ESL, from Quad
Steven E. Schoenherr
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