Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: When was the first microphone invented?
The condenser microphone, invented at Western Electric in 1916 by E. C. Wente,[19] is also called a capacitor microphone or electrostatic microphone—capacitors were historically called condensers. Here, the diaphragm acts as one plate of a capacitor, and the vibrations produce changes in the distance between the plates. There are two types, depending on the method of extracting the audio signal from the transducer: DC-biased microphones, and radio frequency (RF) or high frequency (HF) condenser microphones. With a DC-biased microphone, the plates are biased with a fixed charge (Q). The voltage maintained across the capacitor plates changes with the vibrations in the air, according to the capacitance equation (C = ​Q⁄V), where Q = charge in coulombs, C = capacitance in farads and V = potential difference in volts. The capacitance of the plates is inversely proportional to the distance between them for a parallel-plate capacitor. The assembly of fixed and movable plates is called an "element" or "capsule".
Vacuum tube or electronic valve amplifiers were first used to resolve microphone impedance and output problems. Bell Labs invented the condenser microphones in 1917 and this type of microphone went through many stages of improvement. Because of the invention of valve amplifiers, the production of simple moving coil mics like the Western designed 630A "8 Ball" became possible. This dynamic microphone went on to become one of the mainstays of American microphone production. In this period valves were also then incorporated internally into microphones and valve microphones were hence commercially available.
He also invented and patented, with Edwin S. Pridham, the first anti-noise self-neutralizing microphone in 1917 which allowed wireless communication between aircraft and the ground. This type later became known as the lip microphone, widely used in the First and Second World Wars.
A microphone array is any number of microphones operating in tandem. There are many applications:Typically, an array is made up of omnidirectional microphones, directional microphones, or a mix of omnidirectional and directional microphones distributed about the perimeter of a space, linked to a computer that records and interprets the results into a coherent form. Arrays may also be formed using numbers of very closely spaced microphones. Given a fixed physical relationship in space between the different individual microphone transducer array elements, simultaneous DSP (digital signal processor) processing of the signals from each of the individual microphone array elements can create one or more "virtual" microphones. Different algorithms permit the creation of virtual microphones with extremely complex virtual polar patterns and even the possibility to steer the individual lobes of the virtual microphones patterns so as to home-in-on, or to reject, particular sources of sound. The application of these algorithms can produce varying levels of accuracy when calculating source level and location, and as such, care should be taken when deciding how the individual lobes of the virtual microphones are derived.
Jabra has been responsible for several world firsts. These include the world’s first ultra noise-canceling microphone, the world’s first Bluetooth headset, the world’s first professional active noise cancelation headphones certified for all leading Unified Communication platforms, and the world’s first wireless Dolby sports earbuds with integrated heart rate monitor. Jabra also developed the world’s first in-ear integrated microphone and speaker and DSP-based echo and noise cancelation technologies, and invented and patented EarGels™.
An electret microphone is a type of capacitor microphone invented by Gerhard Sessler and Jim West at Bell laboratories in 1962.[21] The externally applied charge described above under condenser microphones is replaced by a permanent charge in an electret material. An electret is a ferroelectric material that has been permanently electrically charged or polarized. The name comes from electr</i>ostatic and magn<i data-parsoid='{"dsr":[16764,16770,2,2]}'>et; a static charge is embedded in an electret by alignment of the static charges in the material, much the way a magnet is made by aligning the magnetic domains in a piece of iron.
The first recorded patent for a wireless microphone was filed by Raymond A. Litke, an American electrical engineer with Educational Media Resources and San Jose State College, who invented a wireless microphone in 1957 to meet the multimedia needs for television, radio, and classroom instruction. His U.S. patent number 3134074 was granted in May 1964. Two microphone types were made available for purchase in 1959: hand-held and lavalier. The main transmitter module was a cigar-sized device which weighed . Vega Electronics Corporation manufactured the design in 1959, producing it as a product called the Vega-Mike. The device was first used by the broadcast media at the 1960 Democratic and Republican National Conventions. It allowed television reporters to roam the floor of the convention to interview participants, including presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.
In the early 1920s, Drs. Walter H. Schottky and Erwin Gerlach co-invented the first ribbon microphone. By turning the ribbon circuit in the opposite direction, they also invented the first ribbon loudspeaker. A few years later, Dr. Harry F. Olson of RCA started developing ribbon microphones using field coils and permanent magnets. The RCA Photophone Type PB-31 was commercially manufactured in 1931, greatly impacting the audio recording and broadcasting industries. Condenser microphones at the time could not compare to its frequency response. Radio City Music Hall employed PB-31s in 1932. The following year, the 44A came on the scene. Its tone and pattern control helped reduce reverberation. Many RCA ribbon models are still in use and valued by audio engineers.
An electret microphone is a type of condenser microphone, which eliminates the need for a power supply by using a permanently charged material. Electret materials have been known since the 1920s, and were proposed as condenser microphone elements several times, but were considered impractical until the foil electret type was invented at Bell Laboratories in 1962 by Jim West, using a thin metallized Teflon foil. This became the most common type, used in many applications from high-quality recording and lavalier use to built-in microphones in small sound recording devices and telephones.
The first microphone that enabled proper voice telephony was the (loose-contact) carbon microphone. This was independently developed by David Edward Hughes in England and Emile Berliner and Thomas Edison in the US. Although Edison was awarded the first patent (after a long legal dispute) in mid-1877, Hughes had demonstrated his working device in front of many witnesses some years earlier, and most historians credit him with its invention.[5][6][7][8] The carbon microphone is the direct prototype of today's microphones and was critical in the development of telephony, broadcasting and the recording industries.[9] Thomas Edison refined the carbon microphone into his carbon-button transmitter of 1886.[7][10] This microphone was employed at the first ever radio broadcast, a performance at the New York Metropolitan Opera House in 1910.[11][12]
Another German equipment manufacturer, Beyerdynamic, claims that the first wireless microphone was invented by Hung C. Lin. Called the "transistophone," it went into production in 1962. The first time that a wireless microphone was used to record sound during filming of a motion picture was allegedly on Rex Harrison in the 1964 film "My Fair Lady", through the efforts of Academy Award-winning Hollywood sound engineer George Groves.
Early experiments in AM radio transmission, conducted by Fessenden, Valdemar Poulsen, Ernst Ruhmer, Quirino Majorana, Charles Harrold, and Lee De Forest, were hampered by the lack of a technology for amplification. The first practical continuous wave AM transmitters were based on either the huge, expensive Alexanderson alternator, developed 1906-1910, or versions of the Poulsen arc transmitter (arc converter), invented in 1903. The modifications necessary to transmit AM were clumsy and resulted in very low quality audio. Modulation was usually accomplished by a carbon microphone inserted directly in the antenna or ground wire; its varying resistance varied the current to the antenna. The limited power handling ability of the microphone severely limited the power of the first radiotelephones; many of the microphones were water-cooled.
Edison is credited for contributing to various inventions, including the phonograph, the kinetoscope, the dictaphone, the electric lamp (in particular the incandescent light bulb), and the autographic printer. He also greatly improved the telephone by inventing the carbon microphone. Most of these inventions were not completely original but improvements of earlier inventions. However, one of Edison's major innovations was the first industrial research and development lab, which was built in Menlo Park and West Orange.
Litke's wireless microphone was first tested at the Olympic trials held at Stanford University in 1959. Next, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC television) tested the microphone at the Democratic and Republican Conventions in 1960. Candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon were among the first celebrities to use the Vega-Mike. TV anchor John Daly praised Litke's invention on the ABC television news broadcast in July 1960. Daly introduced it to Americans with the words: "This is a Vega-Mike" and went on to explain it "is a wireless microphone, six inches long... without any wires of any kind..." Daly pointed out it could be used to broadcast "within the (convention) hall or outside... without the inconvenience of interconnecting microphone cables..." Even the Federal Communication Commission was impressed with it. The FCC gave him 12 frequencies instead of the one he was seeking.
A "boom arm" attaches to the top of the stand so the microphone can move in the horizontal plane. A guitar player, for example, might use this to place the microphone directly in front of his mouth without having the upright portion of the stand in the way of the guitar. It also lets musicians have the microphone closer to the sound source when floor space is at a premium. This can be particularly useful when placing microphones on a drum stand when the microphone stands must compete for space with things like cymbal stands. Boom arms are offered both in fixed length and adjustable (telescoping) lengths.
Mārtiņš Saulespurēns (born 1943) is an audio engineer who co-founded Blue Microphones with musician Skipper Wise. Saulespurēns also developed the tunable capsule for contemporary microphone design and invented the Champagne Microphone Cable.
The Soundfield microphone is an audio microphone composed of four closely spaced subcardioid or cardioid (unidirectional) microphone capsules arranged in a tetrahedron. It was invented by Michael Gerzon and Peter Craven, and is a part of, but not exclusive to, Ambisonics, a surround sound technology. It can function as a mono, stereo or surround sound microphone, optionally including height information.
In 2007 Chandler Bridges and Rob Chiarelli begin experimentation in loudspeaker and microphone design. In 2008 Gauge Precision Instruments introduces the ECM-87, their first cardioid condenser microphone. Gauge introduced the ECM-47 in 2009, their first multi-pattern Tube microphone. That year Gauge also introduced the USB-87, a Universal Serial Bus powered microphone designed specifically for use with the personal computer, and the ECM-84 and ECM-84SE, their first small diaphragm electret condenser microphone. In 2010, the company introduced the ECM-58, their first hand-held dynamic microphone. The ECM58 was discontinued in April, 2012 and the company introduced the ECM87 Stealth Microphone, an alternate version of the ECM87 Classic. In 2013, the company introduced the MP-1073, their first microphone preamplifier.
1975: Birmingham inventor Michael Gerzon co-invents the Soundfield microphone. Gerzon studies at the University of Oxford, and is inspired by Alan Blumlein's landmark 1933 development of stereophonic recording and reproduction. The Soundfield range of microphones are now considered the ultimate microphones for recording both stereophonic and multichannel surround formats. Gerzon later plays a large role in the invention of Ambisonics, which is a series of recording and replay techniques using multichannel mixing technology that can be used live or in the studio. 
The first microphone that enabled proper voice telephony was the (loose-contact) carbon microphone (then called transmitter). This was independently developed around 1878 by David Edward Hughes in England and Emile Berliner and Thomas Edison in the US. Although Edison was awarded the first patent in mid-1877, Hughes had demonstrated his working device in front of many witnesses some years earlier, and most historians credit him with its invention. 
In 1931, Shure and engineer Ralph Glover began development of the first Shure microphone, and the following year, the Model 33N Two-Button Carbon Microphone was introduced, making Shure one of only four microphone manufacturers in the U.S. Shure's first condenser microphone, crystal microphone, and microphone suspension support system (for which they received their first patent) were all introduced that same decade. In 1939, Shure introduced the Model 55 Unidyne Microphone, which went on to become one of the world's most recognized microphones.
In 1877 and 1878, Edison invented and developed the carbon microphone used in all telephones along with the Bell receiver until the 1980s. After protracted patent litigation, a federal court ruled in 1892 that Edison and not Emile Berliner was the inventor of the carbon microphone. The carbon microphone was also used in radio broadcasting and public address work through the 1920s.
The soundfield mic was invented by Michael Gerzon and Peter Craven. Their theoretical design was developed into a practical microphone system by Calrec Audio Limited, who launched the first soundfield mic in 1978.
The first noted use of a boom mic was on the set of "Beggars of Life" (1928) when director William A. Wellman wanted a tracking shot of two actors walking down a street, and the sound man refused, telling the director that the actors had to be static and the microphone had to be hidden in a flowery vase. Wellman said "that's crazy" and instructed the sound man to put the microphone on a broom-handle and walk along the actors just outside of the frame. According to David O. Selznick, "I was also present on the stage when a microphone was moved for the first time by Wellman, believe it or not. Sound was relatively new and at that time the sound engineer insisted that the microphone be steady. Wellman, who had quite a temper in those days, got very angry, took the microphone himself, hung it on a boom, gave orders to record—and moved it."
Later Golubitskiy telephones were installed at the Nikolaev railway, for official use. In the same, 1883 Golubitsky improved microphone, by typing the microphone with carbon powder. In 1884 Golubitsky began testing onboard telephone, which was able to liaise with the engineer on any railway station. In 1885 they designed a microphone with a centralized location of coal, the proposed power supply system of microphones subscribers from a common battery located at the Central telephone station. This invention enabled the creation of large urban telephone networks. In 1886 Golubitskiy invented the commutator for pairwise connection of several telephone lines.