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Thread: Vote for most important "Lansing" inovation

  1. #16
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    I vote for edgewound VCs and the use of aluminum in them, compression drivers, alnico, and if appropriate, ring radiator diaphragms.

    An off topic ramble that some might find interesting.

    The parent company of Lucent is Alcatel, which is French, and together have become Alcatel-Lucent a couple years ago. I'm a former Lucent Technologies employee and victim of the layoff of over 1/2 of their employees (approx. 240,000 before the layoffs) starting in 2001. AT&T spun-off Lucent in the early 90's, which included Bell Labs and the businesses that once were called Western Electric, Bell Labs the "R" and Western Electric the "D" of the R&D portion of the company.

    Lucent had nothing to do with the original divestiture of AT&T as implied earlier in this thread, but was a result of it to some degree. Lucent made and serviced the telecommunications equipment used in telephone networks, both land and cellular which was formerly done under the Western Electric name.

    After divestiture (among other things, allowing other companies to use the existing telecommuncations infrastructure) Sprint and MCI came into being. Simply put, since AT&T was their competitor, they would not purchase their equipment. Lucent was created in part to solve that quandry. It worked to some degree, and for a while Lucent did well, particularly in the burgeoning cellular business, that I worked in among others.

    Ironically, AT&T contributed to Lucent's downfall. AT&T was preparing to replace much of the equipment in their network, with new generation equipment that was still being R&D'd by Lucent. A multiple 100 million dollar contract was suddenly cancelled by AT&T. With other contributing factors, Lucent's stock went from about $70 a share, down to 50 cents! My 401K is bloodied to this day from that. When the first buyouts were offered, I jumped and did not regret it.

  2. #17
    Administrator Mr. Widget's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by coherent_guy View Post
    I vote for edgewound VCs and the use of aluminum in them, compression drivers, alnico, and if appropriate, ring radiator diaphragms.
    Those are all excellent technologies, however I don't think Lansing invented any of them... they did make excellent use of them though.

    BTW:Thanks for the At&T history... a real American tragedy/screw up I think.


    Widget

  3. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Widget View Post
    Those are all excellent technologies, however I don't think Lansing invented any of them... they did make excellent use of them though.

    BTW:Thanks for the At&T history... a real American tragedy/screw up I think.


    Widget
    You're welcome and very correct. Global competition and the loss of China to GSM, a non-US cellular technology, were contributing factors as well.

    Hey, I was just going by the list in the first post It seems that list needs to be revised... So who invented rotting foam??

  4. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by coherent_guy View Post
    You're welcome and very correct. Global competition and the loss of China to GSM, a non-US cellular technology, were contributing factors as well.

    Hey, I was just going by the list in the first post It seems that list needs to be revised... So who invented rotting foam??
    "Look at the surround - Its a rotter ... damn! "
    Must be a Dutch invention!

    Thanks for the Telco info - we lost a TON of useful R&D when they shutdown Bell labs ... such a shame.
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  5. #20
    Senior Member Hoerninger's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by hjames View Post
    Its a rotter ... damn!
    Must be a Dutch invention!
    Just to contradict:
    The dutch dams (dikes) are best!
    ____________
    Peter

  6. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hoerninger View Post
    Just to contradict:
    The dutch dams (dikes) are best!
    ____________
    Peter
    yes, I've heard very good things about Dutch dykes ...
    but I'm partial to Emma.
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  7. #22
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    Alcatel now Alca-smell!

    Coherant:
    Wow, the Bell Labs/Lucent background was interesting and tragic, I suppose.

    One friend and ATT employee told me when the divestitures ocurred employees had the option to load up or load down on the new/old pieces. Since I knew a tad about Bell and its inovations, I told him to load up on Lucent stock. For the first few years, the Lucent shares did extremely well, and the other companies did not. As you discuss above, that soon changed, however.

    Can you shed any light on the development of edge wound coils; specifically, were these a Bell invention? If yes, what circa?

  8. #23
    Senior Member timc's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Widget View Post
    I don't think JBL or Jim Lansing invented anything on that list in post #1. Mr. Lansing did strive to build the finest examples of existing technology though. As for Altec's achievements I don't know. They certainly marketed their orange plastic phase plug as a radical new invention, but I have no idea if it actually was.

    I do believe that SFG and bi-radial horns are actual innovations from JBL... I am sure there are many others.


    Widget

    Then my vote is for the SFG system.



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    2213 + 2435HPL w/aquaplas + H9800 (Matsj edition)

  9. #24
    Senior Member Hoerninger's Avatar
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    In search for the edgewound voice coil by Moldyoldy:
    http://audioheritage.org/vbulletin/s...patents&page=4
    going back to 1925.

    In this thread there are listed a lot of Lansing related patents found with help of
    http://www.google.com/patents
    ____________
    Peter

  10. #25
    Senior Member SMKSoundPro's Avatar
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    What about ALNiCo magnet motors?

    In reading the book, I thought this was a revolutionary development, along side edge-wound coils.

    And what about kapton former bullets and their cousins: slots and ellipsoidals.

    (Sorry, will not even comment on Emma. Lisa and I loved the picture of her as a super-model Carol Merrill showing the great JBL speakers! It was right out of a classic ad slick! Bring her back.)
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  11. #26
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    Steve Schell:
    The Western Electric 555W compression driver used an edgewound aluminum voice coil, and was in large scale production by 1926 or 1927. I believe this was the first use of a ribbon wire voice coil in a loudspeaker. The U.S. Patents #1,707,544 (A.L. Thuras) and 1,707,545 (E.C. Wente) describe the driver in detail. The particulars of the voice coil design and construction are discussed in depth in Mr. Thuras' patent.

    *****

    Wow - that is very interesting. So, I assume Altec Lansing and JBL did not need to license the patented technology since the patents on edge wounds would have run by the time these companies began production of their iconic loudspeakers that we all love dearly.

    I think you can look at the patent information most of which is in electronic form at the US Patent office. I know this since my Uncle Jim Bartsch invented the first solid (plastic) golf ball in 1963. The Patent is framed in my TV room!

  12. #27
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    Differential Drive Design

  13. #28
    Senior Member glen's Avatar
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    not always the first, but probably the best

    Quote Originally Posted by Mr. Widget View Post
    I don't think JBL or Jim Lansing invented anything on that list ...
    Widget
    I think that more than any particular invention Lansing deserves credit for putting more innovations into production and refining them faster than other manufacturers.
    I remember one audiophile speaker touting a copper shorting ring on the magnet pole piece and vented gap for less heat/power compression. That sounded impressive until I saw that JBL had included these innovations years earlier and was already on their second or third generation of gap vented drivers.

    Whatever Lansing innovation they put out may not have been the first of it's kind, but it very likely became the most common example and the de-facto standard by which other implementations of the same invention would be judged.
    glen

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    - Nick Lowe, while producing Elvis Costello

  14. #29
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    The JBL marketing material from the early 70s was amazing in that took great pride in listing all the technical improvements and inovations that were used in the drivers.

    I assume a lot of this stuff they used back then like flat wire coils, machined pole plates, alnico magnets were also being used by their cheif competitor Altec Lansing but the Altec marketing material took a different path.

    ...the rest they say is history!

  15. #30
    Dang. Amateur speakerdave's Avatar
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    I choose the innovations in the 1500Al to make Alnico safe for rick and roll.

    http://jbl.com/home/k2_story/k2_tech1.aspx

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