Lodewijk Frederik “Lou” Ottens, the inventor of the cassette tape, passed away on March 6 at his home in the Netherlands.
Apart from the cassette tape, Ottens was also known for his role in the development of the compact disk (CD). His death was first reported on by Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsbladon March 9.
Ottens worked as an engineer at a Philips factory in Belgium in the 1950s, where he began to establish his name in the product development department of the company. Within a year, he became part of the team that developed Philips’ first portable tape recorder. This invention sold over a million copies.
His biggest breakthrough, however, happened in the 1960s with the in…
Keep on reading: Cassette tape inventor Lou Ottens dies at 94