Thales of Miletus was one of the group known as the Seven Sages of Ancient Greece. According to later Hellenic period lore, he undertook many long journeys, among others to Egypt. There he is
reputed to have measured the height of the pyramids using the length of their shadows. He also brought further knowledge from Egypt, such as the discovery that the circumferential angle subtended by a triangle in a semicircle is always a right angle. As a result, the half circle above the hypotenuse of a right angled triangle is called the Thales Circle.

According to later tradition, other mathematical theorems which were already in daily use were accredited to Thales. For example: The area of a circle is halved by the diameter. All the angles in an equilateral triangle are the same. Two triangles are congruent if one side and its two adjacent angles are the same in both. The only certain date in his life appears to be May 28th 585 B.C., for which Thales predicted a solar eclipse. Astronomers have retrospectively confirmed this occurrence.

It all began when Micha Huber sought for a way to combine the advantages of a conventional turntable and those of a linear tangential pick-up arm. The solution method is based on the well-known elementary school aid in constructing a tangent: the Thales circle. After much thought, endless sketches and calculations, a three-dimensional, mechanical solution emerged which satisfies all the requirements placed on a modern pick-up system. Provided that the mechanics function as precisely and reliably as a Swiss Watch. His long-cherished dream, geometrically correct sensing with low friction pivot bearings became reality. A new patent was added to the dozens of existing patents which testify to this dream: CH 694567 – Tangential Pivoted Tonearm.