James E West – Black Inventor in the Inventors hall of Fame
By
John C Abercrombie
The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) recognizes induvial engineers and inventors whose work is highly significant in the world of technology and hold a United States patent. The selection goes to people who greatly advance technology that makes human, social and economic progress possible.
They currently have inducted 603 inventors from the past 3 centuries. About 100 are still living. They inducted 22 inventors in 2020.
The focus of this post is James Edward West who invented a product that you are sure to have used and continue to use every day. The microphone as used in telephones and almost every other device with sound. As indicated above, he has been recognized by the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
West was born February 10, 1931 in Farmville which is in Prince Edward County, Virginia to Samuel Edward and Matilda West. His father owned a funeral home and worked as an insurance salesman and porter on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. His mother was a school teacher and worked at Langley Air Force Base during World War II. She lost her job because of involvement in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
This demonstrates the courage it took to stand up for your rights. Being fired for doing so was widespread and well known. It was a form of intimidation.
West became interested in electricity resulting from his work with a cousin installing electrical wiring in houses in rural Virginia. He also had an inquisitive mind and would open appliances to see how they worked. Given a screwdriver and pair of plyers, he would open anything within reach.
He graduated from George P Phenix High School, a school named for Dr George Perley Phenix, Hampton Institute’s first to hold the title of president. He lobbied for modern facilities for Blacks. He then attended Hampton University with plans on completing medical school.
His plans were interrupted by being drafted during the Korean War and was awarded the Purple Heart. He then transferred to Temple and changed his concentration receiving a degree in physics in 1957.
West chose Bell Labs because the opportunity to work with interdisciplinary teams was more attractive to him than other offers, although they offered higher compensation.
He worked with Gerhard Sessler a German born inventor and scientist, professor emeritus at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at the Technische Universität Darmstadt. West and Sessler co-invented the foil electronic microphone at Bell Laboratories in 1962.
They were working on instrumentation for human hearing research. The device they developed is known as the “Electret” microphone. It had higher capacitance and did not require a DC bias. They optimized the mechanical and surface parameters of the system. The electret microphone is an electrostatic capacitor which eliminates the need for a polarizing power supple. It is known for its stability. Nearly 90% of the total production of 2 billion microphones produced every year are produced. They are found in telephones, camcorders, hearing aids, baby monitors.
West is still working at eh age of 89. He is currently working on ways of decreasing the sound in hospitals and this is shown in the videos that accompany this post. He is also working on a device to detect pneumonia in infants.
West was being singled out for recognition as the person who invented the Electret microphone but was reluctant until he discovered that the original microphone, the carbon microphone was invented by Granville T Woods, another Black inventor. Woods sold his patent to Alexander Graham Bell.
It must be recognized that while it was difficult to invent and patent an idea, getting it manufactured also included almost insurmountable obstacles. Remember Garret Morgan had to have someone White portray him to gain acceptance of his gas mask which had been demonstrated to save lives.
It may be overlooked, but West received his early education in Prince Edward County, Virginia the county that after the Brown v Board of Education case, closed its schools for years rather than integrate. Showing the extremes people are willing to go to see that certain people aren’t able to compete.
The inquisitive mind and having parents that pushed education made a difference in this case. This should serve as a model for anyone who wants to make more of life than was given.
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Technology contributions by underrepresented minorities | James West | TEDxBaltimore
Technology contributions by underrepresented minorities – Jim elaborates on the extensive technology contributions of minority scientists and researchers.
Jim is on the faculty at Johns Hopkins University. He is a co-inventor of the foil electret microphone, found in 90% of phones, camcorders, and other electronic devices. He spent 40 years at Bell Laboratories where he received the organization’s highest honor, being named a Bell Laboratories Fellow.
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Black People Invented Everything: The Deep History of Indigenous Creativity
Who invented the traffic light? What about transportation itself? Farming? Art? Modern chemistry? Who made cats? What if I told you there was ONE answer to all these questions? That one answer? BLACK PEOPLE! Seriously. And this book is like a mini-encyclopedia, full of more evidence than WikiLeaks and just as eye-opening! Do you know just how much Black inventors and creators have given to modern society? Within the past 200 years, Black Americans have drawn on a timeless well of inner genius to innovate and engineer the design of the world we live in today. But what of all the Black history before then? Before white people invented the Patent Office, Black folks were the original creators and builders, developing ingenious ways to manage the world’s changes over millions of years, everywhere you can imagine, from Azerbaijan to Zagazig! With wit and wisdom (and tons of pictures!) this book digs deeper than the whitewashed history we learn in school books and explores how our African ancestors established the foundation of modern society! Have you inherited this genius? What can you do with it? Inspired by solutions from the past, we can develop strategies for a successful future!
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Dr. James West Interview Part I
Dr. James E. West, formerly of Bell Laboratories, now research professor at the Johns Hopkins University, interviewed on June 10th, 2009 for the occasion of the Juneteenth celebration by the Student Technology Services, celebrating contributions to science and technology by African American innovators. Dr. West, together with Gerhard Sesslar, invented the Electret Microphone, which is used in roughly 95% percent of microphone applications today.
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Black Inventors, Crafting Over 200 Years of Success
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Dr. James West Interview Part II
Dr. James E. West, formerly of Bell Laboratories, now research professor at the Johns Hopkins University, interviewed on June 10th, 2009 for the occasion of the Juneteenth celebration by the Student Technology Services, celebrating contributions to science and technology by African American innovators. Dr. West, together with Gerhard Sesslar, invented the Electret Microphone, which is used in roughly 95% percent of microphone applications today.
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Black Inventors in the Age of Segregation: Granville T. Woods, Lewis H. Latimer, and Shelby J. Davidson (Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology)
According to the stereotype, late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century inventors, quintessential loners a supposed geniuses, worked in splendid isolation and then unveiled their discoveries to a marveling world. Most successful inventors of this era, however, developed their ideas within the framework of industrial organizations that supported them and their experiments. For African American inventors, negotiating these racially stratified professional environments meant not only working on innovative designs but also breaking barriers. In this pathbreaking study, Rayvon FouchZ examines the life and work of three African Americans: Granville Woods (1856-1910), an independent inventor; Lewis Latimer (1848-1928), a corporate engineer with General Electric; and Shelby Davidson (1868-1930), who worked in the U.S. Treasury Department. Detailing the difficulties and human frailties that make their achievements all the more impressive, FouchZ explains how each man used invention for financial gain, as a claim on entering adversarial environments, and as a means to technical stature in a Jim Crow institutional setting. Describing how Woods, Latimer, and Davidson struggled to balance their complicated racial identities-as both black and white communities perceived them-with their hopes of being judged solely on the content of their inventive work, FouchZ provides a nuanced view of African American contributions to-and relationships with-technology during a period of rapid industrialization and mounting national attention to the inequities of a separate-but-equal social order.nd
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Dr. James West Interview Part III
Dr. James E. West, formerly of Bell Laboratories, now research professor at the Johns Hopkins University, interviewed on June 10th, 2009 for the occasion of the Juneteenth celebration by the Student Technology Services, celebrating contributions to science and technology by African American innovators. Dr. West, together with Gerhard Sesslar, invented the Electret Microphone, which is used in roughly 95% percent of microphone applications today.
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The Inventions of Granville Woods: The Railroad Telegraph System and the Third Rail (19th Century American Inventors)
Provides a biographical sketch of Granville Woods, sometimes known as the “Black Edison,” and descriptions of some of his inventions.
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James West Interview Part IV
Dr. James E. West, formerly of Bell Laboratories, now research professor at the Johns Hopkins University, interviewed on June 10th, 2009 for the occasion of the Juneteenth celebration by the Student Technology Services, celebrating contributions to science and technology by African American innovators. Dr. West, together with Gerhard Sesslar, invented the Electret Microphone, which is used in roughly 95% percent of microphone applications today.
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