This Black History Month, I’m sharing stories of black inventors and their contributions to our lives with products we’ve come to know and love. Follow to learn about other black inventors and their products throughout the month!
Have you captured any audio recently? Whether while recording a video for TikTok, creating a video for YouTube or creating an introduction video for LinkedIn, a special sound-capturing feature is used.
I learned this is possible thanks to the invention of an African-American inventor and acoustician, who holds over 250 patents. Today, the technology he created exists in over 90 percent of all microphones produced for cell phones, baby monitors, hearing aids, and video cameras.
The Inventor: James E. West
An African American man, James E. West invented the foil electret microphone which paved the way for the sound-capturing feature in cell phones
The Product: Foil Electret Microphone
U.S. Patent No. 3,118,022: Electroacoustic Transducer (1964)
The Pain Point
West was tasked with creating a more sensitive and compact microphone while working at Bell Labs in 1960 alongside his colleague Gerhard M. Sessler.
The Solution
West invented the foil electret microphone, which was considerably less expensive to produce than the typically used condenser microphones.
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Which devices do you have that use this technology to capture audio? I would love to hear below!
Dasanj Aberdeen is an entrepreneurial spirit who embodies the combination of left-brain logic and right-brain creativity. She is a consultant and proponent of multidisciplinary education, approaches and pursuits. She writes about their benefits in modern times and integrating multiple interests into a sustainable and fulfilling lifestyle. She’s a graduate of The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University with a concentration in Technology & Innovation Management, jointly delivered by the Fox School of Business and College of Engineering.
