Lou Ottens, the Dutch engineer who invented the cassette tape and helped develop the compact disc decades later, has died. He was 94.
Amsterdam-based news outlet NRC Handelsblad confirmed the news but didn’t provide details.Working to alleviate the challenge of huge reel-to-reel decks and the portability of recordings, Ottens began working on the audiocassette when he was named head of new-product development for Philips in the early 1960s.
He used a pocket-size block of wood as a guide for the cassette’s future size and shape.His brainchild would go on to account for sales of an estimated 100 billion units worldwide.The cassette was a dominant format for music sales from the late 1970s — when record companies complained about the scourge
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