Pure Genius One inventor would go far beyond any of the improvements that Berliner, Bell, or Edison’s co-workers, had ever imagined. It was roughly a decade before disc phonographs reached widespread commercial success and before the widespread use of electricity. In 1899, a little known engineer from the Copenhagen Telephone Company would evolve sound recording so far, that he would provide the jet fuel for the super-acceleration of the Information Age after World War II. No man would have ever reached beyond Earth's gravity and entered space if not for this lucid visionary. Valdemar Poulsen, perhaps more deserving of the title ‘genius’ than Bell or Edison, introduced an idea that was so radical the US Patent Office thought his invention was contrary to all knowledge of the laws of magnetism thus far. By magnetizing steel wire, Poulsen believed the original sound could be replayed infinitely without affecting the recording material; and, after demonstrating his invention, the telegraphone, in Europe, Poulsen was granted a patent and began to experiment with a variety of recording materials. Poulsen created a number of machines using: wire, cylinders, discs, and tape. His tape and wire devices reproduced sound more precisely than the phonographs of the time, providing clearer and sharper recordings that could better stand the test of time. Unfortunately, none of Poulsen’s devices faired well in the marketplace, and tape recording technology would not reach its full commercial or artistic potential until after his patents had expired. By inventing magnetic recording, Poulsen is the father of most, if not all, modern media of data storage, excepting maybe the CD which uses light waves to transmit information. Poulsen sealed the marraige vows between sound recording technology and the advancement of the Information Age. Poulsen's technical inspiration is the ultimate source of commercial tape recording, the microchip, and the hard disk drive of modern computers. His invention of one sound recording device provided the basis for all modern instruments of sound artists. Pure sound was released in the form of modern technological instrumentation, setting the stage for a new artist to emerge. Perhaps Eldridge Johnson’s comments following a supreme court victory in 1909 put it best: Some mysterious fascination seizes those who are initiated into that fanatical circle of activity called the talking machine business.