最新历史版本 :James Russell 返回词条

1965年，James Russell发明只读光盘（CD）。

James T. Russell (born 1931 in Bremerton, Washington) is an American inventor. He earned a BA in physics from Reed College in Portland in 1953. He joined General Electric's nearby labs in Richland, Washington, where he initiated many types of experimental instrumentation. He designed and built the first electron beam welder.

In 1965, Russell joined the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory of Battelle Memorial Institute in Richland. There, in 1965, Russell invented the overall concept of optical digital recording and playback. The earliest patents by Russell, US 3,501,586, and 3,795,902 were filed in 1966, and 1969. respectively. He built prototypes, and the first was operating in 1973. In 1973, 1974, 1975 his prototype was viewed by about 100 companies, including Philips and Sony engineers, and more than 1500 descriptive brochures were sent out to various interested parties[citation needed]. The concept was picked up by many technical and media magazines beginning in 1972[citation needed].

Russell's optical digital inventions were available publicly from 1970. Early optical recording technology, which forms the physical basis of videodisc, CD and DVD technology, was first published/filed by Gregg in 1958 and Philips researchers, Kramer and Compaan, in 1969. It is debatable to say whether Russell's concepts, patents, prototypes, and literature[citation needed] instigated and in some measure guided the optical digital revolution .

Russell also invented an optical, massively parallel, memory system that uses no moving parts. This concept is taught in 6 patents[citation needed].

He has developed concepts for a novel transportation system and urban structure[citation needed].

Russell currently (July 2007) holds 54 US patents.

Major features of the early Russell patents:

The preferred embodiment of the scanning mechanism is awkward since the disc is not rotating but fixed. A scanning mirror with which the light is deflected is attached to a rotating shaft.
The entire disc or oblong sheet to be read is illuminated by a large playback light source at the back of the transparent plate instead by focused laser light in reflective mode. There is no objective lens for reading the data.
Dynamic track or focus servos are absent.
The patent specification mentions the use of a protective layer(s) or coating to prevent scratching during handling, but the layer does not offer significant benefits, as its task is merely to protect. Fingerprints and scratches will obscure the data read. In a CD, on the other hand, where a focused laser beam is used in conjunction with a protective layer at the reading side of the disc, scratches and fingerprints are out of focus, and thus not detected by the reading spot. As a result, the CD/DVD method offers a great resilience against disc anomalies, offering great playability.
Low information density. According to the patent specifications the spot diameter is around 10 micrometres. Thus, the areal information density is, according to the patent specifications, around a factor hundred less than that of a regular CD. This amounts to a capacity of 5 Mbytes for a disc of 12 cm diameter. The inevitable downside to this is that Russell’s disc offers playing time less than one minute of digital CD sound. In case we have digital video at 30 Mbit/s, as claimed above, Russell’s disc would be read in less than two seconds. How such extremely fast scanning could be implemented was not disclosed.
Photographically copying of data.
The patents do not address any details of the digital coding techniques used and/or details of methods how to solve the problems associated with extremely high bit rates of digital video signals. Due to limitations of electronics circuitry, there was no (MPEG) source coding at the time to lower the overall bit rates. The uncompressed bit rate of a color video signal is around 200 Mbit/s, and it is far from clear how the mechanical (scanning speed) and electronic challenges imposed by these enormous bit rates were solved. The patents do not mention error correction or other digital coding technology.

   当谈起那些重大发明时，人们常常能够如数家珍，但对那些日常最常用的技术背后的发明人——哪怕他们发明的东西已经成为生活不可或缺的一部分——许多人却往往知之甚少。　撰文/Paola　Emilia　Cicerone　　编译/赵吉才　
   CD（Compact　Disk）光盘现在已经成为我们日常生活的必需品。在温馨的家里，在富有浪漫情调的咖啡厅里，在幽静的公园里……我们都会听到用CD播放的乐曲，它为我们营造出一种轻松闲适的氛围。那么CD究竟是谁发明了它？看看2000年的沃勒姆奖（Vollum　Award　2000）就知道了，这个享誉世界的大奖专门颁发给那些富有创造力且持之以恒的发明家。

　　　　　1982年10月1日，CD光盘正式投放到市场。这项改变人类生活质量的产品的发明者就是詹姆斯·罗素（James　Russell）。最近，本刊很荣幸地对他进行了专访。

　　　　　在听了他的故事之后，读者或许会认为他堪与文艺复兴时代的巨匠相媲美——他有着惊人的创造力，对新事物孜孜以求，善于将先进技术融入艺术。詹姆斯·罗素先生（他更喜欢人们叫他吉姆先生）如果看到这些溢美之辞，也许会谦逊地摇摇头。的确，他的谦虚给我们留下了深刻的印象，就像当初我们问他能否给我们讲讲他的故事时他说的那番话：“非常愿意，这是我的荣幸。但是读者们会对此感兴趣吗？其实就连我的孩子们都没觉得我有什么特别的地方。”

　 　姐姐的预言

　　　　　自1982年10月1日起，或者说早在罗素取得专利的20世纪70年代起，复制和收听音乐的方式被彻底改变，加之CD-ROM和DVD的出现，就连看电影和记录计算机数据的方式也发生了革命性变化。

　　　　　不过，罗素的生活却一如既往，他仍然孜孜不倦地探求新发明。时至今日，他一直弄不清为什么企业和投资者不能理解和他一样的发明者心中的梦想。

　　　　　“经常如此，”罗素说道，“真正的创造性思维往往与市场或企业的需求背道而驰。糟糕的是，有时候还没等投产，专利就过期了。应该寻求更好的办法资助和鼓励创新：许多重要思路的创意来自于独立发明人，可大企业往往很难同他们进行合作。”

　　　　　对于罗素而言，令他矢志不渝的就是发明创造：“我从小就喜欢无线电，喜欢摆弄电器，要么就给我们社区的电工打下手。那时人们还不管它叫技术，而是分门别类地称之为物理、化学或电子学。差不多10岁的时候，我姐姐就曾‘预言’我读高中后最喜欢的科目肯定是物理。她真的言中了：我的目标就是成为一名物理学家。”　　　　　不过，1953年毕业时，罗素已下定决心要把他的所学运用到实践当中去。他解释说：“我一直希望构思和创造出对人类有益的东西。我对一门心思做学问不感兴趣，我想我不会是一名好老师。”

　　　　　可是他却把对科学的热爱传给了家人。他的妻子毕业于化学专业，三个孩子中有两个分别活跃在化学和物理领域。“甚至我的六个孙子、孙女中年龄大点儿的也都是搞技术的，他们对我的发明很感兴趣。剩下的两个小孙子看来也挺爱好自然科学。”

The digital compact disc, now commonplace in stereos and computers, was invented in the late 1960s by James T. Russell.
Russell was born in Bremerton, Washington in 1931. At age six, he invented a remote-control battleship, with a storage chamber for his lunch. Russell went on to earn a BA in Physics from Reed College in Portland in 1953. Afterward, he went to work as a Physicist in General Electric's nearby labs in Richland, Washington.

At GE, Russell initiated many experimental instrumentation projects. He was among the first to use a color TV screen and keyboard as the sole interface between computer and operator; and he designed and built the first electron beam welder. In 1965, when Columbus, Ohio - based Battelle Memorial Institute opened its Pacific Northwest Laboratory in Richland, Washington, Russell joined the effort as Senior Scientist. He already knew what avenue of research he wanted to pursue.

Russell was an avid music listener. Like many audiophiles of the time, he was continually frustrated by the wear and tear suffered by his vinyl phonograph records. He was also unsatisfied with their sound quality: his experimental improvements included using a cactus needle as a stylus. Alone at home on a Saturday afternoon, Russell began to sketch out a better music recording system --- and was inspired with a truly revolutionary idea.

Russell envisioned a system that would record and replay sounds without physical contact between its parts; and he saw that the best way to achieve such a system was to use light. Russell was familiar with digital data recording, in punch card or magnetic tape form. He saw that if he could represent the the binary 0 and 1 with dark and light, a device could read sounds or indeed any information at all without ever wearing out. If he could make the binary code compact enough, Russell saw that he could store not only symphonies, but entire encyclopedias on a small piece of film.

Battelle let Russell pursue the project, and after years of work, Russell succeeded in inventing the first digital-to-optical recording and playback system (patented in 1970). He had found a way to record onto a photosensitive platter in tiny "bits" of light and dark, each one micron in diameter; a laser read the binary patterns, and a computer converted the data into an electronic signal --- which it was then comparatively simple to convert into an audible or visible transmission.

This was the first compact disc. Although Russell had once envisioned 3x5-inch stereo records that would fit in a shirt pocket and a video record that would be about the size of a punch card, the final product imitated the phonographic disc which had been its inspiration. Through the 1970s, Russell continued to refine the CD-ROM, adapting it to any form of data. Like many ideas far ahead of their time, the CD-ROM found few interested investors at first; but eventually, Sony and other audio companies realized the implications and purchased licenses.

By 1985, Russell had earned 26 patents for CD-ROM technology. He then founded his own consulting firm, where he has continued to create and patent improvements in optical storage systems, along with bar code scanners, liquid crystal shutters, and other industrial optical instruments. His most revolutionary recent invention is a high-speed optical data recorder / player that has no moving parts. Russell earned another 11 patents for this "Optical Random Access Memory" device, which is currently being refined for the market.

James T. Russell has many interests beyond optical data devices. In fact, he has claimed, "I've got hundreds of ideas stacked up --- many of them worth more than the compact disc. But I haven't been able to work on them." Digital engineers and consumers alike will be lucky if he does find the time.

提起数字光盘（CD）的发明者，人们会马上想到两家公司的名字：荷兰菲利浦和日本索尼。因为从上个世纪80年代CD问世起，铺天盖地而来的宣传让这两个公司的名字深深地烙在了人们的记忆里。但是，近日有消息说，CD是美国一位物理学家在上个世纪60年代发明的。而且这位科学家没有从销售CD的巨额利润中得到一分钱。这种新说法无疑引起了人们的广泛关注。难道世上真有这等事？

现在，有很多资料，如创建于2001年1月15日，每天都有来自世界各地的许多参与者进行数千次编辑和创建新条目的网络自由百科全书———WIKIPEDIA———维基百科上就记载着，菲利浦和索尼两家公司拥有CD发明权。有关条目中这样写道：菲利浦和索尼在1980年共同研制了数字光盘（CD），过了两年在西德郎根哈根开始大规模生产。尔后，微软公司和苹果公司加入这个阵营，于1987年把CD变成了CD-ROM，从而引起了世界性的计算机革命。

CD（Compact Disc），是一种用以储存数字资料的光学碟片，原被开发用作储存数位音乐。CD在1982年面世，至2007年中仍然是商业录音的标准储存格式。

在CD尚未发明之前，音响系统都是属于“模拟制式”的，音乐的来源大多是30厘米直径的LP唱片、收音机，以及录音机等，CD发明之前根本就没有数位音响，因此CD可说是继晶体管以来最伟大的发明。

历史
CD光驱起始于1980年，由荷兰的Philips公司与日本的Sony合作所发表的音乐光碟（Audio CD），亦称为CD-DA（Compact Disc-Digital Audio），从此之后，因其它媒体市场的发展而连续推出一系列的光碟规格与产品。

原本仅是为了家电消费、唱片市场所设计，并没有想到CD将来可以用于电脑的用途。当时电脑的资料储存还在5.25吋的磁片阶段，包括3.5吋的磁盘亦尚未被发明。"

CD技术其后被用作储存资料，称为CD-ROM。可录式光碟随后面世，包括只可录写一次的CD-R及可重复录写的CD-RW，直至2007年为止，成为个人电脑业界最为广泛采用的储存媒体之一。CD及其衍生格式取得极大的成功，2004年，全球Audio CD、CD-ROM、CD-R、CD-RW等的合计总销量达到300亿张。

虽然许多音乐迷或音乐专业人士都指出，若使用较高级的器材，CD音质大输LP及录音带，此论点也可以数学证明之；但多数大众无法分辨，且类比讯号也有保存失真问题；所以自CD出现在音响市场之后，30厘米直径的模拟制式LP唱片就开始慢慢隐退。以后所有有关CD的同类产品，包括DVD与BD均是由此衍生的。

CD盘片的结构CD的基本规格（根据1983年9月的Audio-CD 标准红皮书）：

扫描速度：1.2–1.4 m/s，固定线速度/CLV（Constant Linear Velocity）- 约相等于碟内环每分钟500转，碟外环每分钟200转。
轨距 (Track pitch)：1.6 微米
碟直径：120 毫米
碟厚度：1.2 毫米
内半径面积：25 毫米
外半径面积：58 毫米
读写速度：1X = 150 KiB/s = 153,600 Bytes/s
容量：700MB
 
一张CD可存放700MB，相当于数百万字的书籍[编辑] 音乐CD
声音CD（Audio-CD）包括一条或以上的立体声音轨（Track），以16bit PCM编码，采样率（Sample Rate）为 44.1kHz。标准CD的直径为120毫米或80毫米，120毫米CD可储存约80分钟的音频。80毫米的镭射唱片，有时被用作发行单曲镭射唱片（CD singles），则可储存约20分钟的声音资料。