By late 1987, over one-half of American households owned a videocassette recorder (VCR). With unprecedented speed, the small device had entered the home and taken up its place alongside the television as the premiere electronic consumer item. As with many other consumer products, videocassette recording technology had a long development period, and one that dovetailed with the development of other forms of media. Necessary innovations came in the first half of the twentieth century. Dr. Fritz Pfleumer received a 1928 German patent for the deposition of magnetic powders on paper or plastic backing media. The German companies, Allegemeine Elektrizitats Gelleschaft (AEG) and BASF, produced quantities of magnetic tape between 1934 and 1944 exclusively for the German radio broadcasting stations. In 1944, the American 3M corporation began its own experiments with magnetic coatings, but it was not until after World War II that John T. Mullin, a United States electronic specialist, went to Germany...