Magnetic storage
storage of data on a magnetized medium
Magnetic storage or magnetic recording is the storage of data on a magnetized medium. Magnetic storage uses different patterns of magnetisation in a magnetizable material to store data and is a form of non-volatile memory. The information is accessed using one or more read/write heads.
Magnetic storage media, primarily hard disks, are widely used to store computer data as well as audio and video signals. In the field of computing, the term magnetic storage is preferred and in the field of audio and video production, the term magnetic recording is more commonly used. The distinction is less technical and more a matter of preference. Other examples of magnetic storage media include floppy disks, magnetic tape, and magnetic stripes on credit cards.
History
Magnetic storage in the form of wire recording—audio recording on a wire—was publicized by Oberlin Smith in the Sept 8, 1888 issue of Electrical World. Smith had previously filed a patent in September, 1878 but found no opportunity to pursue the idea as his business was machine tools. The first publicly demonstrated magnetic recorder, at Paris Exposition of 1900, was invented by Valdemar Poulsen in 1898.
“Magnetic storage” enters the record as storage of data on a magnetized medium. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Magnetic, storage and data can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Magnetic storage” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Magnetic, storage and data provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1364527. The Library of Congress control number is sh85079723. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1888, 1878, 1900 and 1898.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Magnetic storage” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.