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BENJAMIN BAUMZWEIGER BAUER
1913-1979
BY CYRIL M. HARRIS
B ENJAMIN BAUMZWEIGER BAUER, formerly Vice-President and
General Manager of the CBS Technology Center in Stamford, Con-
necticut, died in Stamford on March 31, 1979.
Mr. Bauer's distinguished forty-two-year career in acoustic
instrumentation and measurement, sound recording and reproduc-
tion, and underwater sound resulted in a long list of engineering
accomplishments and led to his being granted more than 100 pat-
ents.
Ben Bauer was born on June 26, 1913, in Odessa, Russia. After
spending his teenage years in Cuba, he came to the United States in
1930, where he remained, becoming a citizen in 1941. He received a
degree in industrial engineering from Pratt Institute in 1932 and the
electrical engineering degree from the University of Cincinnati in
1937. He pursued postgraduate studies at Chicago and Northwest-
. . .
em universities.
Mr. Bauer's career in industry, following his graduation in 1937,
started with his employment as a development engineer at Shure
Brothers, Inc., in Evanston, Illinois, where he eventually became
Director of Engineering and Vice-President. One of his significant
contributions to the field of acoustic instrumentation was the devel-
opment, at Shure Brothers, of the first unidirectional (cardioid)
microphone in a single transducer, the principle of which is widely
used today in microphones of this type. In addition, he made impor-
tant contributions to the field of recording, including disc-cutter and
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8
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
phonograph pickup designs. Another device that he perfected, the
moving-coil pistonphone, was used widely in microphone calibra-
tion work.
During World War II he worked on the development of speech
communication equipment for the Armed Services. One such device
was the battle-announce microphone used both during and after the
war by the U.S. Navy.
In 1957 he joined the CBS Laboratories in Stamford, Connecti-
cut, where he headed audio technology development. He led a
group of engineers in developments in stereo discs, magnetic record-
ing, and other equipment leading to improvement in the quality of
recorded music. His research efforts resulted in the development of a
loudness-level indicator, a device currently used by the Federal
Communications Commission and others in monitoring broadcast
programs.
In 1970 he led a team that developed the SO quadraphonic matrix
system, which in 1977 was judged by the Federal Communications
Commission Laboratory to be the best of all matrix systems tested.
In 1975 Mr. Bauer was made Vice-President and General Manager
of the CBS Technology Center at Stamford, where he directed
research and development in areas of advanced television, high-
density recording, audio systems, and audio reproduction. His out-
standingwork at CBS was acknowledged in 1978 by presentation of
the Distinguished Service to CBS Award.
In addition to his work in recording and reproduction of sound,
Ben Bauer made significant contributions to the field of underwater
sound, including the development of an underwater directional com-
munications system for divers, directional gradient hydrophores
used in Navy sonobuoys, and a calibrator for hydrophores.
Among the many honors accorded Mr. Bauer were the Gold
Medal Award of the Audio Engineering Society in 1963; the Univer-
sity of Cincinnati's Distinguished Alumni Award in 1969; the Insti-
tute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE's) Aerospace and
Electronic Systems Group Honorary Life Member Award in 1969;
the Silver Medal Award of the Acoustical Society of America in
1978; and membership in l'Ordre de Chevalerie de l'Etoile de la
Paix, a Vatican-based nondenominational organization founded in
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BENJAMIN BAUMZWEIGER BAUER
9
1229 and dedicated to peace. In 1974 he was elected a member of the
National Academy of Engineering, and he served on the Naval
Studies Board.
Ben Bauer was a prolific contributor to technical journals, with
more than 100 papers to his credit, and he was the editor of a
textbook on the acquisition, reduction, and analysis of acoustical
data published by the U.S. Navy. He was a past President and
Honorary Member of the Audio Engineering Society, a Fellow of
the Acoustical Society of America and Associate Editor of its journal,
and a Fellow of the IEEE and past National Chairman of its profes-
sional group on audio.
His many patents include basic inventions of directional micro-
phones, and others in the fields of sound transmission and process-
ing for recording and broadcasting, acoustic measurements and
calibration, sound recording and reproduction, and quadraphonic
disc technology.
He is survived by his wife, Ida, and two sons, Dr. Philip J. Bauer
of Stamford and Dr. William E. Bauer of Studio City, California.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
audio engineering
