Microphones

Microphones

Microphones are a part of everyday life. They are used in telephones, transmitters for commercial radio and television broadcast, amateur radio, baby monitors, tape recorders, motion pictures, and public address systems. There are many different types of microphones—the design depending upon the application.

• Sound recording,
• radio and television,
• and motion picture studios use ribbon or condenser
• Public address systems,
• telephones,
• and two-way radio communications systems can use carbon, ceramic,
• or dynamic microphones because of their versatility and low cost.

A major breakthrough in microphone technology would come in 1931 with the invention of the moving-coil or dynamic microphone by Wente and A. C. Thuras of Bell Laboratories. The dynamic microphone has a lower noise or distortion level than that of the carbon microphone and required no power to operate. The dynamic microphone is in extensive use today in all areas of communication and entertainment.