Magnetic+Tapes

=** What are Magnetic Tapes? **=  The Magnetic tape was first invented for recording sound by Fritz Pfleumer in 1928 in Germany, based on the invention of magnetic wire recording by Valdemar Poulsen in 1898. But after some time the people thought it would bee better if they could use it for recording videos too
 * Magnetic ****tape **  is a medium for magnetic recording generally consisting of a thin magnetizable coating on a long and narrow strip of plastic.

The use of magnetic tape for computer data storage has been one of the constants of the computer industry. In all formats, a tape drive (or "transport" or "deck") uses precisely-controlled motors to wind the tape from one reel to another, passing a tape head as it does.

Due to the escalating political tensions preceding hostilities, and the eventual outbreak of World War II, these developments were largely kept secret from the rest of the world. Magnetic tape was first used to record computer data in 1951 on the Eckert-Mauchly UNIVAC I. The recording medium was a thin strip of one half inch (12.65 mm) wide metal, consisting of nickel-plated bronze (called Vicalloy). Recording density was 128 characters per inch (198 micrometer/character) on eight tracks. Tape remains a viable alternative to disk in some situations due to its lower cost per bit. Though the areal density of tape is lower than for disk drives, the available surface area on a tape is far greater. The highest capacity tape media are generally on the same order as the largest available disk drives (about 1 TB in 2007). Tape has historically offered enough advantage in cost over disk storage to make it a viable product, particularly for backup, where media removability is necessary.