UPDATED 8/14/2008

Former video engineer Egbert ("Bert") Praetorius died this week at approximately 90 years of age. Praetorius, according to a post on Reddit, invented the video rewind: Not the physical rewinding of tape, but the ability to play video in reverse smoothly and without glitches.

Praetorius was a licensed ham radio operator and lived in New Jersey.

Wired.com reached one of Praetorius' children, who confirmed the basic details of the Reddit story. The invention dates to the early 1960s.

"He was always tinkering in our basement," the source said. Despite not having a college degree, Praetorius had a technical education in electronics from the military, and continued to teach himself through hands-on experimentation at home.

After inventing the rewind, Praetorius appeared on an episode of the TV show I've Got a Secret. A list of headline guests on that show doesn't mention his name, but the list doesn't cover every guest who appeared on the show.

Praetorius worked at WPIX, a New York television station, until his retirement in 1984.

One question remains about his Praetorius's invention: The ability to show video in reverse, smoothly, is dependent on a helical scan videotape system. The first of these was invented by Ampex and Sony in 1976, so it's not clear what exactly Praetorius's innovation did or how it worked.

We'll bring you more details as we have them.

Gadget Lab readers: What do you think?

Photo: Leo Reynolds / Flickr