JAMES WEST:

THE MICROPHONE

By Carroll G. Lamb

Whether you are a musician, a disc jockey, a television news broadcaster, or speaker at a school assembly, you no doubt use a microphone. Nearly all microphones made today are based on the principle of the foil-electret microphone developed by James West and a co-worker at Bell Telephone Laboratories. West’s invention consists of thin sheets of polymer electret film that are metal-coated on one side to form the membrane of the movable plate capacitor that converts sound to electrical signals with high fidelity. The foil-electret microphone was patented on March 23, 1976.

James West was born on February 10, 1931, in Prince Edward County, Virginia. In a New York Times article dated November 13, 2005, West says about his childhood, “If I had a screwdriver and a pair of pliers, anything that could be opened was in danger. I had this need to know what was inside.”

West studied at Temple University and received his degree in electrical engineering in 1957. He interned at Bell Labs during summers off from Temple and joined the company after graduation. As a Bell employee, he worked in electroacoustics, physical acoustics, and architectural acoustics.

According to the National Inventors Hall of Fame, West is the recipient of more than 200 U.S. and foreign patents. He is the leader of a program directed at minority high school students that encourages them to experience science with the assistance of mentors at Bell Labs.