Lou Ottens, inventor of the cassette tape, has died at 94

Lou Ottens, father of the cassette tape
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Cassette: A Documentary Mixtape)

Lou Ottens, the Dutch engineer who developed the cassette tape at Philips in 1963, died on Saturday, Dutch media reported Wednesday. He was 94. Ottens joined Philips in 1952 and rose to become head of product development by 1960. He wanted to create a portable tape recorder because he "got annoyed with the clunky, user-unfriendly reel-to-reel system," he explained years later. The Philips "compact cassette" was unveiled at a 1963 electronics fair, boasting it was "smaller than a pack of cigarettes."

Ottens carved a prototype of the cassette out of wood, making sure it would fit inside a jacket pocket, explains Marc Masters, who is writing a book on the history of cassette tapes. (That wooden prototype "was lost when Lou used it to prop up his jack while change a flat tire," Philips Museum director Olga Coolen tells NPR.)

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.