Carbon microphone
Micrófono de carbón
- Date
- 1877–1878 · confidence high
- Place
- Menlo Park, New Jersey, United States
- Credited to
- Thomas Edison; David Edward Hughes; Emile Berliner
- People
- 👤 David Edward Hughes1831–1900👤 Emile Berliner1851–1929👤 Thomas Alva Edison1847–1931
- Field
- Communication
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A variable-resistance transmitter with carbon granules that amplified the voice signal. It made the telephone practical over long distances and was the standard microphone for 80 years.
Hughes coined the term 'microphone' and demonstrated his version in London in 1878; Edison and Berliner fought over the patent in the courts for years.
What it led to
- Viable long-distance telephony
- The first radio voice broadcasts
- The consumer telephone industry