Tager, Pavel Grigorevich

Born Sept. 18 (Oct. 1), 1903, in Moscow; died there June 30, 1971. Soviet inventor specializing in sound films. Professor (1937). Honored Worker in Science and Technology of the RSFSR (1947).

Tager graduated from Moscow State University in 1926 and from the M. V. Lomonosov Moscow Institute of Mechanics in 1929. In the periods 1932–39 and 1947–69 he worked at the All-Union Scientific Research Institute of Motion-Picture Photography; from 1939 to 1947 he worked at the Institute of Automation and Telemechanics. Between 1926 and 1929, Tager invented an original system of sound recording that used a Kerr cell; the system came to be known as the tagefon. The first Soviet sound motion picture, A Start to Life (1931), was made with this system. Tager directed the development of equipment for recording television programs on film (1957), and he was the author of a number of works on videotape recording (1957–60). He also worked on problems involving stereophonic sound. Tager was awarded the State Prize of the USSR (1950), the Order of Lenin, and various medals.