rhf@druxx.UUCP (08/31/83)
In memory of a dedicated stereo pioneer from the "Bell Labs News", Vol. 23 No. 37, dated August 29, 1983 entitled "Engineer Invented Stereo". "Arthur C. Keller, retired Bell Telephone Laboratories engineer who pioneered high-fidelity and stereo recording techniques, died August 25 in Bronxville, N.Y. He was 82. Keller's invention of a "moving coil" playback stylus made possible the first hi-fi records. His work with sound engineer Irad S. Rafuse led to the first single-groove stereophonic recordings, and their proposal for recording two sound channels onto a master disc became the standard stereophonic technique. Keller joined Western Electric Engineering Department in August 1917, and became an employee of Bell Laboratories when AT&T's research and development unit was formed in 1925. He retired from Bell Labs in 1966 as director of the Switching Apparatus Laboratory. He wrote 35 technical papers and received 40 U.S. patents (150 worldwide) in the field of electromechanical devices, sound recording and reproduction, sonar, switching apparatus, electronic heating, sputtering, magnetic tape, and complete telephone systems. Keller was a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and a member of the American Physical Society and the Yale Engineering Association. He was awarded honors by the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the Audio Engineering Society, and the National Association of Relay Manufacturers. Since his retirement from Bell Labs he was on the board of directors of several companies and also served as a research and development consultant. He attended Cooper Union, Yale University, and Columbia University. He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Margaret D. Keller, a daughter, Mrs. Margaret K. Curtis of Bronxville N.Y., and two granddaughters, Morey M. and Whitney D. Curtis."