Marvels of miniaturization

I worked with computers. A lot. For the past 42 years. So I'm relatively blase about the miniaturization that has gone on in the computing field. What I sometimes fail to adequately appreciate is how the same miniaturization has taken place in other fields.

Take music for example. When I was a boy, a record album was just that -- an album looking very much like a photo album with 6 to 8 records in their own sleves between the covers of that album. Each record was 10 inches in diameter and had a tune or song on each side. So the album would have 12 to 16 musical numbers and would take 1 to 1.5 inches on a book shelf, a well supported bookshelf as that many records were also heavy. These records spun at a speedy 78 revolutions per minute, more than once a second. I also remember they were made of a hard plastic that would crack and chip easily. I remember melting scratched or chipped records in the oven over a coffee can to create a decorative bowl. I wonder if you could do that with a CD?

I wasn't yet a teen when the smaller format 45 rpm records made their entry. (Above picture courtesy of Wikepedia.) They were practically unbreakable which was a good thing since they were marketed heavily to teenagers. Only 7 inches in diameter they also had a huge (1.5 inch) hole that was supposedly made to facilitate stacking of records and automatic changing to the next record. I say supposedly because most people had a changer that worked with the 10 inch 78 rpm records. I think the 45 rpm were more to facilitate sales of "singles" which was becoming a large market. Almost all 45's also had something on the opposite or "B" side which was just a bonus. Rarely were two popular numbers placed on the same 45.

In my early teens, the 33 1/3 Long Playing or LP came out and shortly after the Stereo LP was introduced (the large black disk shown above). I remember the first time I saw an LP playing. It was at my uncle Leroy's house and all us kids were so amazed to see a record spinning so slow. It was slow enough for us to read the label! It was also slow enough that it could hold 5 to 8 songs on a side with slight spaces between them in case you wanted to go directly to a particular number. Now an "album" was contained on one 12 inch record and an inch of shelf space could easily hold 8 or 10 "albums".

For the really discerning ear, at this time we had reel to reel tapes that were 1/4 inch wide. In a 5 year period this 1/4 inch went from one track to 2 tracks for stereo to 4 tracks for stereo in both directions. At the same time quality recording speed went from 7 1/2 inches per second (ips) to 3 3/4 ips. Then the cassette hit the market with tape only slightly more than 1/8 inch wide and a recording speed of 1 7/8 ips. There were still four tracks on that tiny strip of tape but somehow miniaturization kept the quality up. A typical cassette held the equivalent of a 12" Stereo LP record "album" but was small enough to fit into a shirt pocket. Soon players were available that weren't much bigger. A person could easily carry around an album and the machine to play it on.

Of course, we're all familiar with the rapid rise in popularity of the CD. It wasn't so much smaller than the cassette as just much less vulnerable to damage. And, of course, one could go to a specific track so much quicker than with a cassette tape.

As I've mentioned earlier, Carolyn and I gave each other iPods for Christmas. As illustrated above, an iPod is about the same size as a cassette. But unlike the cassette, the iPod is both storage medium and player.


We've barely begun transferring our tape and CD collection to our iPods but already we have stored (for instant replay at any time) 140 albums representing 2,118 songs (or musical numbers). It would take 5 24-hour days to play all this music. In addition, we have 8,922 photos and 18 podcasts stored at this time. And as you can see from the display above, we aren't even 1/10 of capacity! We'll be able to store all the CD's and cassettes we have in the whole house and still have more than half left empty.

And, of course, no one thinks we've hit the limit.