On March 4, 1877 German-American inventor Emile Berliner, working in New York City, invented the microphone. It was first used as a telephone speech transmitter.
Berliner obtained two microphone patents:
- U.S. Patent 224,573 Microphone (loose carbon rod), filed September 1879, issued February 1880
- U.S. Patent 225,790 Microphone (spring carbon rod), filed Nov 1879, issued March 1880
- UK Patent 15232 filed November 8, 1887
Image from Berliner's first loose carbon rod microphone patent.
