Magnetic strip. History of invention and production

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HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY, TECHNOLOGY, OBJECTS AROUND US
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Magnetic strip. History of invention and production

The history of technology, technology, objects around us

Directory / The history of technology, technology, objects around us

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A magnetic stripe card is a type of card that has the ability to store and modify data on a magnetic medium by magnetizing tiny iron-containing particles of magnetic material located on the card in the form of a longitudinal strip. The magnetic stripe is read by swiping a magnetic reading head across it.

magnetic stripe
Credit cards

Magnetic recording on steel tape and wire was invented during World War II to record sound. In the 1950s, magnetic recording of digital computer data on plastic tape coated with iron oxide was invented. In 1960, IBM, working under a US government contract on security systems, used the idea of magnetic tape to develop a reliable way to secure magnetic stripes on plastic cards.

Opening the door to a hotel room with a magnetic key or paying for purchases in a store with a credit card, few people think about how the magnetic strip appeared on these cards. Meanwhile, in the 1960s, credit cards were just a piece of plastic with embossed (embossed) letters and numbers. For payment, the seller made a copy of the card on a special check - a slip - and sent it to the processing center, where the clerk manually entered the numbers from the slip into the computer system. This technology was slow and led to many errors.

In the early 1960s, the CIA asked IBM to develop new identification cards for intelligence headquarters employees, containing not only visual, but also, in accordance with the requirements of the time, digital identification. The only compact digital media then was magnetic tape. It would seem that it is difficult to take a tape and attach it to a plastic card? However, this task was not given to IBM engineers for a long time. They tried dozens of adhesives, but some shrunk so that wrinkles remained on the tape, while others did not shrink, but dissolved the polymer base of the tape. In both cases, the tape became useless for storing data.

One of the engineers working on this problem was Forrest Parry, a graduate of the Naval Academy at Annapolis. After serving in the Navy, he worked for several years at the National Laboratory. Lawrence at Livermore, and in 1957 began his career at IBM. Frustrated by the constant failure, Forrest Parry took some plastic cards and pieces of Mylar tape home, where he told his wife Dorothy about the problem, who was ironing clothes at that time. While smoothing out the creases in her husband's shirt with an iron, Dorothy suddenly stopped and, looking at Forrest, suggested: "Why not iron out the creases of the magnetic tape in the same way as underwear?"

After a few short experiments, the magnetic tape was welded perfectly flat to the card, and the next day Forrest returned home radiant with pleasure: testing in the laboratory confirmed that the magnetic tape, welded to the card with an iron, remained fully functional.

magnetic stripe
Bank card reading

IBM realized that the technology of magnetic cards promises much more than just an identity card. A group led by Jerome Swaigals worked for several years with banks and airlines, which led to the emergence in 1969 of a national, and two years later - an international standard.

The company even decided not to patent the technology to encourage the widespread use of magnetic cards. However, the new technology paid off - after all, for every dollar spent on the development of magnetic cards, the company ended up receiving more than $ 1500 in sales of computer equipment. And although now magnetic stripes are beginning to give way to microchips and wireless technologies, they have done their job - they have united the world with fast and convenient financial transactions.

Author: S.Apresov

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