1983 Compact disc: Arch rivals — Philips and sony — Combined forces to produce an audio breakthrough

In 1969, it seemed a far-fetched notion at best, but the Dutch physicist couldn't get it out of his mind. One day he told a friend and colleague at the Philips plant in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, how RCA engineers in the United States had found a way to copy holograms inexpensively by impressing the refraction patterns on a nickel sheet that becomes a mold for pressing out the copies.