Benjamin B. Bauer papers,
1935-1979.
Repository
American Institute of Physics. Niels Bohr Library & Archives.
Papers created by
Bauer, Benjamin B(aumzweiger)
Size of collection
3.5 linear feet
7 manuscript boxes
Short description of collection
This collection documents Bauer's inventive work primarily at CBS Laboratories, in particular his development of the stereo quadraphonic record system. Other topics include underwater sound and communication, the ferromagnetic principles of magnetic recording, and noise pollution.
Language(s) of collection
English
French
German
Spanish
Collection number:
AR263
Benjamin Baumzweiger Bauer, a leading figure in audio and acoustics, engaged in research, development, engineering, management, teaching, writing, and lecturing in acoustics and communications for over forty years.
Born on June 26, 1913 to a Jewish family in Odessa, Russia, Bauer was interested in electricity and music from his earliest days. His mother had studied piano in Berlin and taught at the Odessa Conservatory. He spent his teen years in Cuba and came to the United States in 1930. Bauer received a degree in industrial electrical engineering from Pratt Institute in 1932, and an Electrical Engineering degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1937, and did postgraduate work in physics, mathematics and acoustics at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. He became a United States citizen in 1941.
His career in industry began in 1936 as a University of Cincinnati co-op student engineer at Shure Brothers, Inc., a small firm in Evanston, Illinois, which manufactured acoustical devices. He was appointed Chief Engineer in 1940 and Vice President and Director of Engineering in 1950. Among his early scientific contributions were the invention of a single-transducer unidirectional microphone and the development of a low-tracking-force moving-magnet phonograph pickup principle.
In 1957 Bauer joined CBS, Inc., as Vice President of Acoustics and Magnetics at CBS Laboratories in Stamford, Connecticut. Under his direction, CBS Laboratories became a recognized leader in applied acoustical technology. He wrote widely in areas of engineering acoustics, psychoacoustics, underwater acoustics, and musical acoustics. One of his most notable achievements during this era was the development of the stereo quadraphonic (SQ) “matrix” system for phonographic reproduction and broadcasting. From 1975 to 1978 Bauer was Vice President and General Manager of the newly formed CBS Technology Center, successor to CBS Laboratories, where he directed research and development in television, high-density recording, audio systems, and sound reproduction. He retired in 1978 but remained active as a consultant and head of his own company, Audio-Metric Laboratories, Inc.
Bauer was recognized for many significant contributions in research and for numerous acoustical developments. The long list includes microphones for acoustical measurements, pistonphones, heart-beat measurements, hearing aids, sound ranging, military and civilian communications, public address systems, and broadcasting headphones and artificial voice and ear devices; loudspeakers and enclosures; vibration measuring instruments; stereophonic phonograph records and photograph recording and reproducing transducers; magnetic recording heads and transports; directional hydrophones and calibrators; devices for automatic level control in broadcasting; and psychoacoustic research related to directional hearing in the air and underwater and the measurement of loudness.
The author of numerous papers, Bauer received over fifty patents, lectured widely on acoustics and research administration in the U.S. and abroad, and was a Visiting Professor of Engineering Acoustics at Pennsylvania State University. He was a Fellow of the Institute of Radio Engineers, the Acoustical Society of America, the Audio Engineering Society, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Bauer and his wife, Ida, were married in 1937. They had two sons, William and Philip. Bauer died on March 31, 1979.
The papers of Benjamin Bauer are primarily professional in nature, documenting his inventive work at CBS Laboratories and Shure Borthers, Inc., and his participation in professional associations. While there are early papers and a very small amount of material from his own company, Audio-Metrics, most of the collection is from the years Bauer was at CBS, Inc.
The largest series, his articles and addresses (bulk dates 1967-1978), contains drafts and manuscripts with some supporting technical notes and drawings. The major focus of the writing is on the stereo quadraphonic (SQ) record system he developed in 1970. Other topics include microphones, phonograph pickup systems, underwater sound and communication, management, the ferromagnetic principles of magnetic recording, loudness level monitors, and noise pollution. Most of these articles were for publication in professional acoustical journals and most addresses were given before colleagues in acoustics and related fields. However, some of the articles and addresses were directed to a public or lay audience. Bauer was the chief spokesperson promoting the SQ system for CBS Inc. and, in this capacity, he wrote for Audio and High Fidelity magazines, spoke to record and high fidelity equipment dealers and at consumer electronic shows (folders 12-13) and even wrote copy for a record jacket (folder 12).
The next major series is “Memoranda, Data, Calculations, Notes, Technical Reports, and Press Releases.” This series is organized by company, and within that, chronologically, with two folders on Shure Brothers, five on CBS, and nothing on Audio-Metrics. Memoranda include discussions with CBS colleagues Dennis Gabor, Peter C. Goldmark, Emil L. Torick, Spencer Olson, and L. A. Abbagnaro on technical matters. Notes, data, and drawings found here were not clear accompaniments to specific articles and addresses. Also included here are CBS petitions before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)for standardization in FM Stereo-Quadraphonic broadcast transmission (folder 26). After a series of tests in 1977, the FCC deemed the Bauer SQ system the best of all matrix systems.
The correspondence, incoming and outgoing, is not extensive. It is mostly of a routine professional nature concerning memberships and appointments in professional societies, publications, speaking arrangements, patents, congratulations, and the writings of others. Some of the letters document collaborative work on technical matters. Also included are letters Bauer wrote to congressmen, senators and U.S. presidents on political matters of deep concern to him. Correspondents include the Institute of Radio Engineers, the Audio Engineering Society, the Acoustical Society of America, the American management Association, the Institute of Noise Control Engineering, and Marshal McLuhan.
The series on teaching materials reflects his work as a Visiting Professor of Engineering Acoustics at Pennsylvania State University in the summers of 1967, 1974, and 1978. It includes his lectures, homework assignments, quizzes, and reprints of articles he distributed to his students.
Other series are quite straightforward. Series I contains clippings and articles about Bauer, awards he received, and his “Phonographic Biography” (1977). It is unclear whether Series VI, Patents, and Series IX, Reprints, are complete since the American Institute of Physics (AIP) does not have a complete list of Bauer’s published articles and patents. Series VII contains material from conferences he attended, and Series VIII contains loose photographs not connected with other papers.
Researchers must have an approved access application on file in order to access archival materials. https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/item-request.
These papers have been indexed in the
International Catalog of Sources for History of Physics and Allied Sciences (ICOS)
using the following terms. Those seeking related materials should search under these terms.
Persons
Bauer, Benjamin B. (Benjamin Baumzweiger), 1913-
Institutions
Columbia Broadcasting System Laboratories.
Pennsylvania State University.
Subject terms
Engineering. Study and teaching.
Ferromagnetism.
Magnetic recorders and recording.
Noise pollution.
Quadrophonic sound systems.
Underwater acoustics.
This collection is organized into ten series:
- Series I: Biographical material
- Series II: Correspondence
- Series III: Articles and addresses
- Series IV: Memoranda, data, calculations, notes, technical reports, and press releases
- Series V: Teaching materials
- Series VI: Patents
- Series VII: Conference materials
- Series VIII: Photographs
- Series IX; Reprints by Bauer
- Series X: Writings by others
Each series is arranged chronologically, where possible.
The collection was a gift of Ida Bauer, widow of Benjamin Bauer, in 1986.
This collection was processed by
Elisabeth Elkind in
1987.
Box [number], Folder [number], Benjamin B. Bauer papers, 1935-1979 (bulk 1967-1978). American Institute of Physics, Niels Bohr Library & Archives, College Park, MD 20740, USA.
Title
Finding Aid to the Benjamin B. Bauer papers, 1935-1979.
Publisher
American Institute of Physics Niels Bohr Library & Archives
One Physics Ellipse
College Park, MD 20740
USA
nbl@aip.org
2009
Encoding Information
Machine-readable finding aid encoded by Melanie J. Brown in 1987. Any revisions made to this finding aid occurred as part of the editing and encoding process.
| Box 1 |
Folder 1 |
Biographical clippings and articles, awards and autobiography,
1935-1979 |
| Box 1 |
Folder 2 |
Acoustical Society of America - Higwan,
1947-1979 |
|
Folder 3 |
Institute of Noise Control Engineering - Nixon,
1947-1979 |
|
Folder 4 |
Olinger - Yamazaki, and unknown,
1947-1979 |
| Box 1 |
Folder 5 |
Articles and addresses,
1935-1959 |
|
Folder 6 |
Articles and addresses,
1961-1963 |
| Box 2 |
Folder 7 |
Articles and addresses,
1964-1966 |
|
Folder 8 |
Articles and addresses,
1967-1970 |
|
Folder 9 |
Articles and addresses,
1970-1971 |
|
Folder 10 |
Articles and addresses,
1972 |
|
Folder 11 |
Articles and addresses,
1972 |
| Box 3 |
Folder 12 |
Articles and addresses,
1973 |
|
Folder 13 |
Articles and addresses,
1974 |
|
Folder 14 |
Articles and addresses,
1975-1976 |
|
Folder 15 |
Articles and addresses,
1977 |
|
Folder 16 |
Articles and addresses,
1978-1979 |
|
Folder 17 |
Articles and addresses,
undated |
| Box 4 |
Folder 18 |
Articles and addresses,
undated |
|
Folder 19 |
Articles on Stereo Quadraphonic (SQ) system,
undated |
|
Folder 20 |
Articles on Stereo Quadraphonic (SQ) system,
undated |
| Box 4 |
Folder 21 |
Notebook from early work at Shure Brothers, Inc.,
1937-1939 |
|
Folder 22 |
Shure Brothers, Inc,
1939-1957 |
|
Folder 23 |
CBS, Inc.,
1958-1965 |
| Box 5 |
Folder 24 |
CBS, Inc.,
1966-1968 |
|
Folder 25 |
CBS, Inc.,
1969-1973 |
|
Folder 26 |
CBS, Inc.,
1974-1977 |
|
Folder 27 |
CBS, Inc.,
1977-1978; undated |
| Box 5 |
Folder 28 |
Pennsylvania State University engineering acoustics,
1967, 1974 |
|
Folder 29 |
Pennsylvania State University audio engineering,
1978 |
| Box 6 |
Folder 30 |
Pennsylvania State University audio engineering,
1978 |
|
Folder 31 |
Pennsylvania State University audio engineering,
1978 |
| Box 6 |
Folder 32 |
Patents,
1938-1954 |
|
Folder 33 |
Patents,
1956-1964 |
|
Folder 34 |
Patents,
1965-1976 |
| Box 6 |
Folder 35 |
Printed programs, reports and papers,
1938-1978 |
| Box 7 |
Folder 36 |
Photographs of apparatus,
undated |
| Box 7 |
Folder 37 |
Reprints,
1939-1962 |
|
Folder 38 |
Reprints,
1963-1970 |
|
Folder 39 |
Reprints,
1971-1978 |
| Box 7 |
Folder 40 |
Articles, reprints and patents on acoustics and related topics (including patents, 1892, for Thomas Edison's speaking telegraph),
1891-1977 |
|
Folder 41 |
Articles on creativity and invention from popular science magazine,
1958-1976 |
