Remembering Alec Reeves

摘要

I thought it strange that Steve Harris' Investigation feature in the February issue didn't mention Alec Harley Reeves, the British engineer who patented the concept of pulse-code modulation (the basis of digital recording) in 1938 and who later had a hand in the development of fibre optic cable. Reeves was a man who should be remembered. Steve Harris replies: No-one would argue with David Mansell on the importance of Alec Reeves as a founding father of digital audio, and perhaps even in my brief introduction he should have got a mention. Reeves certainly was an extraordinary figure, who apart from laying the foundations for PCM also contributed much to the development of radar in World War Ⅱ and eventually held no fewer than 82 patents.