Re: Speaker Vs. Microphone

[John Denker <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

At 08:50 PM 8/11/00 -0400, Tom McCarthy wrote:

> AG Bell invented the telephone, which I would think
> would make him the inventer of the microphone.

Well, that sorta depends on where you draw the line on the continuum of
"bad microphones" and "good microphones".  People before Bell had invented
really bad microphones (e.g. Reis, 1861), and people after Bell invented
better microphones.

Bell (1876) was the first to invent one that was good enough to transmit
intelligible speech in the laboratory.  That microphone was not suitable
for large-scale deployment.

This quite properly gave Bell the basis for a patent on the telephone in
general.  Later various folks (Bell and others) quite properly got patents
for improved microphones.

> After doing a little research, I find that E Berliner and T Edison both
> invented the microphone and that Berliner's version allowed Bell's company
> get out of a nasty dispute with Edison.

Actually according to references such as
  http://www.privateline.com/TelephoneHistory/History1.htm
  http://www.navyrelics.com/tribute/the_history_of_the_telephone.html
Bell adopted the Blake microphone rather than the Berliner microphone.  And
according to
  http://www.digitalantiquaria.com/VailMansion/Tnv/Ht/HT4.html
Hunnings and White made important contributions also.  This process of
multiple layers of improvement is typical for important inventions.

>    Concerning the speaker, the grammophone was invented by Edison using a
> cylindrical disc while Berliner invented the flat, record style grammophone.
> Was the grammophone the first speaker or, was it the ear piece on Bell's
> first telephone,

The telephone predates the gramophone.

> essentially the mouth piece operated in reverse?

The earliest microphones were not speakers operated in reverse.