The Bark Heard 'Round the World

OLIVER BERLINER The Bark Heard 'Round the World Technical breakthroughs, and legal battles, spawned the recording industry. Richards, chief operator N OUR ZEAL to commemorate 100 years of commer- one day to visit his friend Alvan tried to amuse cial sound recording, we tend to forget that this of the Washington Fire Office. Richards hand at a spare same year marks the 100th birthday of an equally his dejected friend by letting him try his important invention, the microphone -the first and, telegraph key. young Emile in my opinion, the greatest invention of my grandfather, Richards immediately pointed out that differ- Emile Berliner. was not pressing hard enough upon the key. "What ?" asked We also fail to recognize that the disc record, its fore- ence does that make, as long as I make contact runner the cylinder dictation machine, and the micro- my grandfather. Richards explained that in long distance is high, you must phone all owe their origin respectively to three inimitable telegraphy where resistance in the lines to ade- Frenchmen. My grandfather's microphone, the principle make a forceful contact at the key in order get to point out that this of which is still in use in every one of the world's tele- quate reception. Richards was quick be used as tele- phones, utilizes the loose contact principle discovered by was the reason why women could not current passed Count du Moncel. But the Count failed to render practi- graph operators. He noted that more through a light one in cal that which he had demonstrated in theory. through a forceful contact than In 1876, after the Emperor of Brazil made possible these cases. for Alexander Graham Bell's tele- worldwide publicity THE TOY DRUM phone which he had seen at America's centennial expo- rushed home, knowing that this was the sition in Philadelphia, many inventors and would -be inven- Emile Berliner a telephone transmitter. He embedded a sewing tors set out to create a practical telephone; Dr. Bell's mar- secret of the "head" of a child's toy drum. vellous device was not only sound -powered, but also used needle in the center of the drum on its side, he dangled a polished ball the earpiece for talking. Twenty -five year old German Standing from the edge of the drum so that it lightly immigrant Emile Berliner, a dry -goods clerk and one -time on a wire the tip of the needle. Now, by speaking to student of electricity at New York's Cooper Union, tried rested against and the head to vibrate with the sound working on such a telephone. Discouraged, he went out the drum causing waves, the ball bounced ever so lightly against the point of the needle, thereby making contact in sympathy with the sound waves. The rest is history-for this microphone principle, which Oliver Berliner, grandson of Emile Berliner, is the passed the limits of scientific credibility at the time, was author of numerous articles on music, audio and video, acquired soon after by the fledgling Bell Telephone Com- West Coast editor of Broadcast Management /Engineer- pany to overcome the drawbacks in the basic telephone. ing Magazine, and author of the textbook, Color TV Curiously, the then -powerful Western Union Telegraph Studio Design & Operation. He is president of Ultra Company had acquired the rights to a microphone invented Audio Pixtec. This article, which was reprinted from the by the already famous Thomas Edison. Although Western July/ August 1977 issue of the Journal of the Audio Union was eager to get into the exciting new field of Engineering Society, originated as an address delivered telephony and envisioned itself as the ideal organization w at the May, 1977 A.E.S. Convention in Los Angeles. to do so, its lawyers examined the Berliner microphone www.americanradiohistory.com.

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