Meanwhile. .

Even though the wire recorder was still in its infancy, the technology that would bring about its obsolescence was already taking shape. AEG, a German electrical manufacturer, and I.G. Farben, a large German chemical firm, teamed in the early 1930s up to design a tape recorder that used a new type of tape. Rather than the solid steel band introduced by Poulsen, engineers developed a new medium consisting of a special iron oxide powder coated onto a plastic tape (there were other variations, such mixing the iron into the liquid plastic and then casting the homogenous mixture into a thin tape). The recorder, called the Magnetophon was initially disappointing in its performance compared to existing magnetic recorders, but with numerous improvements it soon became the standard in all German RRG radio stations. It was discovered during the war by the Allies and after Germany fell in early 1945, many examples are "liberated."