Talk:Carbon microphone

message: I'm giving User:ILike2BeAnonymous a pat on the back for harmonizing the Button microphone article with the Microphone article.
Gerry Ashton 21:21, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

message: There should be a discussion here of the contribution of David Hughes. A year after Edison obtained a patent for the telephone transmitter using a carbon button, Hughes wrote up his experiments with a telephone transmitter using conductive materials , principally carbon, in loose contact, but also including pieces of metal chain or common nails, in loose contact, and sent it to a British scientific society. He called his device the "microphone." Scientific American published a reprint of his writing, and said it appeared to be just a repeat of Edison's invention. Clearly everything Hughes "invented" was fully preceded by the work of Reis, Berliner, and Edison. The closest antecedent of Hughes' work was the Edison phone transmitter. It is very hard to believe that a Professor in the U.S. could be inventing telephone equipment and be familiar with Bell's work but not Edison's a year after the Edison patent and transmitter were widely publicized. But he did push the state of the art somewhat, particularly by having several pieces of carbon in series between carbon electrodes. Hughes noted that it made very faint sounds audible through a Bell phone receiver. He sought no patent. His device was not commercially usable, since its crude construction meant that any vibration, such as someone walking around, caused crashing noises to be heard at the far end. The British made carbon telephone transmitters and said they were based on the Hughes device rather than the Edison device, to avoid patent rights and royalties. Some websites now say that todays "microphone" is based on Hughes invention, where in fact he deserves mostly credit for re-introducubg the term, but not for inventing the underlying technology. Today's microphone is a development of technology besides the devices invented by Hughes.Edison 12:47, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Hughes' contribution may be worth mentioning, but one or more sources should be cited if this material is to be added. Since his device was not commercially usable, I'd keep the section about Hughes short.--Gerry Ashton 21:03, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Contribution of David Hughes

message: The article was edited to call it a "Solid Back Microphone" but how was it referred to in the patent cited? Books call it a "transmitter?" Absent evidence to the contrary, I will change it back to "transmitter." Edison 04:20, 1 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I think you're falling into one of the classic traps of the historian here: while "transmitter" was used when these devices were extant, for good reasons, those reasons now no longer exist, and it's merely confusing to modern readers to use this term. You might, however, point out that this term was used then and explain why; to use it in the article as an identifier, though, would be needlessly confusing. +ILike2BeAnonymous 17:14, 1 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I added "microphones (then called transmitters)" to the short History paragraph.  Transmitter is also mentioned in the top paragraph. These anachronisms happen frequently.  Must we say New York City (then called New Amsterdam) when referrig to the time when Peter Minuit bought Manhattan Island from the Canarse (now called Mohawks) Native Americans (then known as Indians)? Greensburger 17:55, 1 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Please note the 1995 reference book on phone history which still calls it a "transmitter,"  so the New Amsterdam" example is not convincing. I still often find phones with carbon transmitters. If you said "Look at the microphone" I would look for a handheld or standmounted mic for recording, radio or PA work. Older phones with the round carbon transmitter in the mouthpiece seem to outlast the newer ones for whatever reason. Edison 18:18, 1 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: White Solid Back Transmitter

message: I am not certain, but I have a suspicion that the example cited as a carbon amplifier still in production: 
"However, carbon amplifiers are still being produced and sold.[5]"...may actually be a device to match some other form of mic, e.g. electret, to a "carbon level" system rather than an example of amplification by use of a carbon microphone (and the link seems to be broken now too). Can anyone please verify that this is what it is claimed to be? Solid state amplifiers to match modern headsets etc. to legacy telephone systems are extremely common. Onlyonefin 13:28, 14 June 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I doubt that the mentioned 'Tuffset Carbon III' has anything to do with a carbonamplifier. It's carbon-black. - Bemoeial (talk) 13:28, 19 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Carbon Amplifier 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: The article claims
:Hughes also coined the word microphone.
Is there a source for that claim? I ask, because etymonline states, that the term was much older, from the 1680's, denotating an "ear trumpet for the hard-of-hearing,"
Is the term a reinvention of Hughes not knowing the older word, or does Hughes refer to the older word? Or is the claim from the article here at wikipedia wrong, or the statement of etymonline? Any clarification is very much appreciated!
Jonathan Scholbach (talk) 15:20, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: It looks like the source at the end of the paragraph might address it; I suggest digging into that source. Jc3s5h (talk) 15:52, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
replies: text:  Actually I read this source and it claims that Hughes coined the term. But firstly it is not a very reliable source and secondly it does not clarify the relation of the term of Hughes and the pre-existing term "microphone". Jonathan Scholbach (talk) 16:20, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  History of the term "microphone"