Richard Howland Ranger

and

Rangertone, Inc.

Chronology

1899 -- Richard Howland Ranger is born in Indianapolis, Indiana, theson of John Hilliard and Emily Anthen Gillet Ranger
1912-1916 -- Ranger owns Ranger Co. Printers of Boston
1916-1920 -- Service in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, earning the rankof Major. While there, he worked in France to 1919, and then served brieflyas head of a laboratory at Fort Monmouth
1918 -- Ranger writes a monograph for the military entitled "ArtilleryLines of Communication"
1919-1923 -- Ranger attends MIT, earning a B.S. in electrical engineering.In 1923 he marries Laura Lewis of Montclair, New Jersey
1923 -- Ranger's work for RCA results in a wireless facsimile system.The system is dramatically demonstrated with trans-oceanic transmissionsbetween the U.S. and England, and the U.S. and Hawaii.
1923 -- He publishes an obscure book for radio enthusiasts entitled"The Radio Pathfinder"
1920-1930 -- His Signal Corps experience led to a job with the newly-formedRadio Corporation of America as an engineer
1930 -- Ranger forms Rangertone Incorporated on Verona Ave. in Newark,NJ.
1931--Rangertone electronic 32' pitch stop for the lowest octave ofa large organ pedalboard installed in recital hall of Skinner Hall of Music,Vassar College. One of only a few Rangertones actually sold.
1932 -- Ranger delivers to National Broadcasting Corporation a "chimelesschime," a three note synthesizer to replace the use of actual chimesfor NBS radio's familiar "G-E-C" musical signature
1936 -- Struggling to find salable products, Ranger moves the companytowards high fidelity phonograph products, developing a line of improvedrecording styli and recording blanks. These products were apparently neversold.
1932 -- Ranger, in a paper delivered before the National Associationof Organists, announces his Rangertone electric organ. The machine used12 small motor-generator sets to generate tones, plus vacuum tube amplifiersand special filtering circuits to amplify the signals and drive a loudspeaker.Few are sold
1942-1943 -- Returning to the Signal Corps as a Colonel, he was placedin charge of the Army Air Corps Radio and Radar Test Labs in Orlando
1943-1944 -- He was sent to the Army-Navy Electronics Standards Agencyat Red Bank.
1944-1946 -- In what became a career-changing assignment, Ranger becamepart of technical investigations in France, England, and Germany to examineGerman advances in electronics. He wrote a series of technical reportson electrical components, communications, television, and (most significantly)magnetic tape recording.

Some time during 1945, in the course of investigating German electronicstechnologies for the U.S. Army, Richard Ranger came across the highly advancedmagnetic tape recording devices manufactured by the German firm AEG. Givenhis interest in music, it is not surprising that he was fascinated withthese machines.

Removing a few machines from Germany for his personal use, Ranger returnedto the U.S. and in 1947 announced his new Rangertone Tape recorder (themachine was probably not actually in production until mid-1948). The machinewas clearly modelled on the AEG Magnetophone, particularly in its use ofof Magnetophone recording tape and nearly exact copies of the AEG recordingand playback heads.

Ranger demonstrated his recorder to potential users of the machines,including the members of the Institute of Radio Engineers, the NationalBroadcasting Company, the Radio Corporation of America, the American Instituteof Electrical Engineers, and individuals like singer Bing Crosby. His IREdemonstrations won him many admirers, and sales to local radio stationsconstituted the major customer for almost two years.

However, the Rangertone corporation was a small operation with limitedmarketing ability, and soon the similar products offered by such companiesas Ampex Corporation began to squeeze the Rangertone out of the radio stationmarket.

Ranger at about this time sought to develop markets in the motion pictureindustry and invented a clever way to synchronize a tape recorder to amotion picture film using a low-frequency electrical signal. The Rangertoneline of portable lip synchronous recorders sold moderately well after itsintroduction in 1949, as did a conversion kit to convert an ordinary taperecorder to synchronous operation. Apparently many of the users were relativelysmall production companies, often makers of industrial films or televisionseries.

By the early 1960's, Rangertone had eliminated its general-pupose soundrecorders from the catalog, concentrating instead on specialized equipmentfor motion picture production. At some point, the company purchased therights to manufacture a system using 35 mm tape with sprocket holes, andthis product is still in production.

Ranger died in 1961, and his estate sold the company to a young employee,George Zazali. Now called Rangertone Research, the company remains a privately-heldcorporation.