HE MADE THE MICROPHONE

Radio Record, 22 April 1938, Page 8

HE MADE THE MICROPHONE

The Forgotten Story of David Hughes Who was too big to. bear Malice

Special to the "Record" by

E. M.

DORKIN

HESE days one hears a great deal about the genius of Marconi and the other great men of radio whose discoveries in the field of practical physics have revolutionised modern life. But few indeed, however well they may know the story of radio, know the story of the little instrument whose name is almost interchangeable with it-the microphone. The inventor of that vital thing in the mechanics of radio was David Hughes. Though he

might well have made millions out of his inyention, it is doubtful that it put a penny piece in his pocket, directly or indirectly. He gave the principle of his discovery free for the use of hu-manity---despite his long and bitter fight for recognition of it. The story is but another of radio’s thousand and one romances.

ITTLE more thun 100 years ago David Edward Hughes was born in Lundon. When still a schoolboy he began to show an inventive and scientific turn of mind. The Hughes family later moved to America and, after taking a college course at Bardstown University. young David began to take a keen interest in music-so keen that he obtained a music professorship at the university and soon afterward gained the Chair of Natural Philosophy at the age of nineteen! Six years after becoming Professor of Natural Philosophy he invented a type-printing telegraph which, adopted by the Western Union Telegraph Company, became the chief rival of the Morse system. The Hughes teletype was sold in France, Germany and four other European countries after having been refused in EngJand. That one invention made him world famous, brought him three foreign knighthoods and an Austrian

barony. And it brought Hughes nearly one million pounds in royalties. Only his native England refused to acknowledge aud appreciate David Hughes, but it was to Engiand that Hughes returned to retire and enjoy the fruits of an active life. HIE inventor settled down in retirement at 40 Langham Place. it West

Ind, little dreaming that years hence Broadcasting Ilouse would be built over the road — that mighty marble palace of his creation, the niucrophone,

Wealthy and happy as he was, Hughes could not persuade himself ta abandon physical research altogether. One night, seated in front of the fire, he saw two pieces of charred woocd fall out of the fireplace.

The trivial incident my voked within his fertile brain a train of thought. Taking the charcoal with hit) into his laboratory he found, by experimenting, that two pieces of carbon, held in loose contact, would amplify the current sent through them. Excited by the experiment, he set to work immediately and, with sealing wax and an empty cigar-box, constructed an instrument which he christened there and then "microphone." * N the days that followed David Hughes perfected his invention, his chief concern being to obtain extreme sensitivity. At length he built an inStrumeut so sensitive that the footsteps of a fly walking across a sheet of paper could be made to sound like an army marching aeross a lridge! He was even able to hear the same fly nibbling at a piece of sugar. ven then the physicist was (Continued on page 41.)

Made Microphone

DAVID HUGHES’ STORY (Continued from page 8). not satisfied. Eventually he constructed an instrument so delicate that, with its aid, it was possible to hear the sound of air waves disturbed when extra current was given an induction coil, After further extensive tests, London policemen on beat in the early hours of the morning saw the strange spectacle of a distinguished scientist wandering round Langham Place endeavouring to pick up the signals from the microphone in his house. UGHES eventually presented the result of his researches to the Royal Society, who laughed derisively at his theories and declared that e'ectrical impulses had nothing whatsoeverto do with the sounds he heard on his receiver ! That experience of organised savantry was by no means exceptional. The history of science is full of such similar amazing occurrences, despite the fact that the "rebels" are always 90 per cent. right. But Hughes was far too big a man to bear malice. When, at last, he gained scientific recognition of the success of his instrument he did not turn on the Royal Society; nor did he smother his inventions with greedy patents. He made not one farthing. The microphone was his gift to the world. When, in 1900, he died worth nearly £500,000, he left the greater part of his fortune to the "Hughes Hospital Trust Fund" for four London hospitals. Ts it a truism that no Englishman need. expect England to honour him?