Full name: James Edward Maceo West

Scientist and Inventor

Born: Virginia, February 10th, 1931

Educated: Temple University

 

Full name: Gerhard M. Sessler

Scientist and Inventor

Born: Germany, February 15  1931

Educated: University of Göttingen

Sources

In 1960, while at Bell, West teamed up with fellow scientist Gerhard M. Sessler to develop an inexpensive, highly sensitive, compact microphone. In 1962, they finished development on the product, which relied on their invention of electret transducers. By 1968, the electret microphone was in mass production. West’s and Sessler’s invention became the industry standard, and today, 90 percent of all contemporary microphones—including the ones found in telephones, tape recorders, camcorders, baby monitors and hearing aids—use their technology.

Franklin Institute 

Gerard Sessler and James West invented the most ubiquitous microphone in use today—the small, affordable, and high-performance foil electret microphone, which now serves as the basis of 90% of the more than 2 billion microphones produced annually. Working at Bell Labs in the 1960s, Sessler and West replaced the traditional microphone condenser—which was expensive, bulky, and demanded a high voltage input—with an “electret” foil. This foil, made of a piece of fluoroethylenepropylene, commonly known as Teflon, can permanently hold a charge independent from an electrical source. (“Electret” is a combination of the words “electric” and “magnet,” since it can hold a permanent electric charge the way a magnet can hold a permanent magnetic charge.) Without the need for a big battery, a low-voltage, easily miniaturized, and inexpensive microphone was introduced, and has found its way into professional microphones, cell phones, hearing aids, baby monitors, video cameras, and more.