Inventor of the Compact Disc

Essay by dark_mage93Junior High, 9th gradeA+, March 2004

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The inventor of the compact disc is James T. Russell. He was born in Bremerton, Washington in 1931. Russell earned a BA in Physics from Reed College in Portland in 1953. In 1965, James started work at the Bettelle Memorial Institute as the senior scientist. That is were he designed and built the first optical data storage system. This invention was created because Russell was unsatisfied with the quality of vinyl records at his time. They always wore out after being played too many times. One Saturday afternoon, he sat down and started to sketch out a better music recording system. After years of work, he completed the system, and patented it as the compact disc in 1970.

There were a few social impacts from the invention of the CD. One was that people could buy music knowing that it wouldn't wear out. Another impact is that the medium is so cheap that anyone can buy CD-R's and record any data on it.

An economic impact from the invention of the CD is that people can buy more music and know that the quality of the music will always stay the same. There were no political forces in society that impacted the invention of the CD.

I think that this invention was very beneficial to society. It makes sharing and buying massive amounts of electronic data a lot easier. The CD doesn't get worn out from being played, and can resist minor scratches, fingerprints, and being left out in the rain for a few hours. Two benefits of the compact disc are that it provides convenient massive media storage and that it's a device that doesn't wear out by being played. The only disadvantage of the compact disc is that if it gets big scratches, then the...