A Singular Advance in Conversion of Acoustic Signals to Electrical Form: The Electret Microphone [DSP History]

This column is from a symposium in tribute to Gerhard Sessler and James West on the occasion of their receiving medals of the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, 29 April 2010. I would like to talk about one person's perception of how the practical electret microphone was created and how it became established. Today, we use them as a commodity, and they appear in nearly every device that requires changing aerial acoustic waves into electrical form. The initial incentive was telephony.