Auspicious genius and noted inventor of some renown Alan Dower Blumlein, a great unsung genius of the early 20th century almost slips through the net without any serious recognition. Only now is he to be awarded a posthumous Grammy, after turning the music world upon it's head and creating stereo sound.
The engineer, born in Hampstead, North London, was killed while working upon a top-secret radar project for the military in 1942.
Born in 1903 he earned a first class degree at the Imperial College London, and joined Columbia Records (later EMI) in their research department. It was in 1931 whilst watching a cinematic film with his wife and finding himself unimpressed by the sound quality. After some thought he eventually came up with the idea of producing recorded sound with two microphones and recording separately. This concept became known as Binaural Recording, which later became the more familiar Stereo Recording. The first film produced with a stereo recording was of a steam locomotive passing the Columbia/EMI company HQ. During his years at the company, AD as he was affectionately by his colleagues, posted 128 patents. He also pioneered the Marconi/EMI television system for the BBC still used up until the digital conversion in 2012.
After this he then found more work with the military during World War ll but was killed on June 7 1942 In a flying accident, involving a converted Halifax Bomber, being used for experimental radar research. The plane caught fire at 15000 feet causing the deaths of all seven crew and passengers.
The award will be presented later this year and there is some talk of a film in his honour.
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