Yoshiro Nakamatsu
Among Nakamatsu's early inventions is the Shoyu Churu Churu, a siphon pump used in the home to move soy sauce from large containers to smaller vessels for cooking and serving. His patented inventions include:
Based upon a patent issued in 1952, Nakamatsu claims to have invented the first floppy disk well before IBM's floppy disk patent was filed in 1969. However, what Nakamatsu patented in 1952 was a paper for optical sound player. In contrast to a floppy disk, this Nakamatsu patent discloses the use of printed paper for storage instead of the magnetic material of a floppy disk. It is not rewritable and lacks most elements of the IBM floppy disk patent. Since the paper was 'floppy' material, he claims he had invented the floppy disk (sometimes he uses the phrase "floppy media"); however, it should be noted that flexible magnetic recording media was well known prior to 1952, in tape and wire recording.
History of the floppy disk
Apple purchased bare SA-400 drive mechanisms for their Disk II drive, which was then equipped with a custom Apple controller board and the faceplate stamped with the Apple logo. Steve Wozniak developed a recording scheme known as Group Code Record which allowed 140k of storage, well above the standard 90–113k, although the price of double density controllers fell not long after the Disk II's introduction. GCR recording used software means of detecting the track and sector being accessed, hence there was no need of hard sectored disks or even the index hole.