These stories of little-known episodes are why I keep reading the paper. "He invented the stereo sound we are all so familiar with. And yet, despite his vast contribution to the music business, Alan Dower Blumlein is all but forgotten – in part because his death during the Second World War was hushed up. All that is about to change, however. The electrical engineer is to receive a posthumous Grammy award for transforming the way we listen to music – and his life is likely to be the subject of a movie. Mr Blumlein's name is listed as one of the 2017 special merit recipients for Sunday night's Grammys and he will be honoured alongside many of the giants of contemporary music. The engineer from Hampstead, North London, was killed while working on top-secret radar technology in 1942. His work was so important that his death at the age of 38 was kept quiet. Born in 1903, he showed early promise by fixing his father's doorbell at the age of seven. He gained a first class degree and joined the research department of Columbia Graphophone, later part of EMI, at the age of 25. It was three years later that he had the 'Eureka moment' that led to the development of stereo recording and playback. While watching a film with his wife Doreen, he became frustrated that the sound did not match what was happening on screen. He decided it would be more realistic if he used two microphones to record separately. The development – 'binaural recordings' – is what is now known as stereo. The first film with a stereo soundtrack was of a steam train travelling from Hayes Station in Middlesex in 1935 – next to EMI's HQ. During the Second World War, his talents were used by the military and he was working on a H2S, an airborne radar system when he was killed. On June 7, 1942, the Halifax bomber he was flying in – converted into a flying lab – caught fire at 15,000ft and crashed at Welsh Bicknor, in Herefordshire. All the other ten passengers and crew, including five other top scientists, were killed. The project was completed by RAF engineers." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4209900/A-Grammy-British-genius-changed-music-ever.html#ixzz4YFFRxMLy
The Halifax bomber caught fire because during a routine resetting of engine valve tappets a small tappet nut was left sluck by one of the ground crew. The passengers didn't have parachutes, although it was the duty of the pilot to make sure they had. The Halifax crew could have bailed out, but because of their feeling of solidarity with their passengers didn't, and tried a suicidal belly landing. But the plane, with its fuel tanks on fire disintegrated short of the runway. There was 192 of those valve tappets per aircraft to be reseted during every inspection.
