Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Fred Pfost papers
- Dates:
- 1952-2018
- Creators:
- Pfost, Fred and Pfost, Dale Robert
- Abstract:
- Fred Pfost's correspondence, lab reports, testing notes, and assorted materials--including two tape head assemblies--regarding his work on tape head design for Ampex Corporation's video tape recorder project in the 1950s-60s.
- Extent:
- 6.0 Linear Feet 4 rsbs
- Language:
- English .
- Preferred citation:
-
[identification of item], Fred Pfost papers (M3027), Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The Fred Pfost papers contain materials created by and about Fred Pfost (1928-2023) relating to his participation in and development of tape head assemblies for Ampex Corporation's video tape recorder project from 1954-1962. Much of the material involves Pfost's quests for appropriate materials for use in video tape head assemblies. In addition to internal and external correspondence regarding materials, reports, lab sketches, notes, Ampex publications, printed ephemera, and photographs, the Pfost papers include VHS tapes and audiocassettes with recordings regarding the Ampex video tape recorder, in particular Charles P. Ginsburg's role in its development, a bound report on the Video Tape Recorder project, a two-volume user's manual for the Ampex VR-1000, and two tape-head assemblies for the VR-1000.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Born near Boise, Idaho, Fred Pfost (1928-2023) was an American engineer and the last surviving member of the pioneering 1956 Ampex video tape recorder development team which included Ray Dolby, Charles Ginsburg, Alex Maxey, Charles Anderson, and Shelby Henderson. Pfost earned a degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley and started working for Ampex Corporation in Redwood City, California in 1952.
Pfost's first assignment at Ampex was to assemble electronics for FM data recorders. Further assignments included working on a 21-channel instrumentation recorder for the Navy, designing a flux-sensitive playback head for a data recorder used for oil well logging, and developing an amplifier/speaker unit for the Ampex Model 600 semiprofessional audio recorder. In September 1954, Pfost was assigned to the video project. It had been restarted after being on hiatus for two years, in response to the industry-wide race for the development of the world's first video recorder.
Pfost was first asked to develop an automatic gain control to overcome the amplitude variations the team was getting off tape using the recorder intially developed in 1951-1952 by Charles Ginsburg and Ray Dolby. This assignment proved unnecessary once Pfost and the team members realized that the problem was a matter of oxide orientation on the 2-inch wide magnetic tape manufactured by 3M. The team asked 3M not to orient tape particles longitudinally but rather use a random orientation; the team also modified the video tape recorder's head drum orientation by 90 degrees. Meanwhile, Pfost redesigned the transducers (recording heads) to create one that could overcome the huge centrifugal force at the head drum periphery. Charles Ginsburg, the team's leader, put Pfost in charge of video head development.
Throughout 1954 Fred Pfost designed the components for the complete video head assembly including a mount that made the tape head easy to remove from or drop into the video recorder's top plate. In March 1955 the video recorder team gave a convincing demonstration to the Ampex Board of Directors and started designing a console for the video recorder's electronics and mechanics. In April 1956, the team demonstrated the Mark IV recorder prototype at the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters conference in Chicago; Pfost was in attendance there. Meanwhile, in Redwood City, Ray Dolby prepared a press demonstration using the Mark III prototype. The invention was an immediate success, and the team's work was acknowledged with an Emmy award in 1957.
Fred Pfost went on to design further tape heads for audio, video, and instrumentation recorders at Ampex. He also designed a manual tape splicer for 2-inch wide magnetic recording tape.
Pfost left Ampex in 1962 to join MVR Corporation, where another of his inventions made possible the world's first video instant-replay and stop-action recorder, for which the company received an Emmy award. Pfost then developed the prototype of "Cartrivision," the world's first home videotape format, later eclipsed by Sony Betamax, Matsushita's VHS, and the Philips' VCR formats, all of which used Ampex patents, including Pfost's.
Pfost was awarded a third Emmy for Lifetime Achievement in 2005, an award that was given to each of the six members of the original Ampex videotape team. He died in December 2023, at age 95.
- Acquisition information:
- This collection was given by Dale Pfost to Stanford University, Special Collections in June 2024.
- Arrangement:
-
The collection is arranged into a single series: 1. Video Tape Recorder Project Files, 1952-2018
- Physical location:
- Special Collections and University Archives materials are stored offsite and must be paged 36 hours in advance.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
About this collection guide
- Date Encoded:
- This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2025-05-09 14:29:33 -0700 .
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open for research. Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use. Access to digital content is restricted to the Special Collections Reading Room. In order to access this content, please contact specialcollections@stanford.edu
- Terms of access:
-
While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.
- Preferred citation:
-
[identification of item], Fred Pfost papers (M3027), Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford Libraries, Stanford, Calif.
- Location of this collection:
-
Department of Special Collections, Green Library557 Escondido MallStanford, CA 94305-6004, US
- Contact:
- (650) 725-1022