Dr james e west biography
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James West (inventor)
American inventor and acoustician (born 1931)
James Edward Maceo West (born February 10, 1931) is an American inventor and acoustician. He holds over 250 foreign and U.S. patents for the production and design of microphones and techniques for creating polymer foil electrets.
Early life
[edit]West was born on February 10, 1931, in Farmville, Prince Edward County, Virginia as the elder of two children to Samuel Edward and Matilda West. He was born in his maternal grandfather's house because the local hospital would not admit Black people. His father worked at various points as a funeral home owner, an insurance salesman, and as a Pullman porter on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. His mother was a schoolteacher who worked at Langley Air Force Base during World War II; she later lost her job due to her involvement in the NAACP and became one of the "Hidden Figures" (Black astrophysicists who worked for NASA at Langley Research Center and received little to no credit for their work). His maternal grandmother, who was formerly enslaved, was a major influence on him; she raised him while his mother was away teaching at a Native American reservation in Pennsylvania. He became interested in electricity at twelve years old after taking a job installing
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James Edward West, Ph.D., is a Bell Laboratories Fellow at Lucent Technologies where he specializes in electro, physical, and architectural acoustics. James West's research in the early 1960s led to the development of foil-electret transducers for sound recording and voice communication that are used in 90% of all microphones built today and at the heart of most new telephones being manufactured.
James Edward West was born on February 10, 1931 in Prince Edward County, Virginia. He was an inquisitive young boy, fascinated with electronics and always ready to take things apart to discover how they worked. His curiosity almost got the better of him when he was eight years old and decided repair a broken radio. Confident that he had fixed the radio, he plugged it into a ceiling outlet, standing on the brass footboard of his bed. Unfortunately, a bolt of 120 volts of electricity shot through his body, temporarily paralyzing him where he stood. Luckily his brother was standing nearby and knocked him onto the floor, and saved him from further shock. Rather than being afraid James West became even further intrigued by electronics and electricity.
His fascination with electricity lead him to major in 1953 in Physics at Temple University. "In those days in the South, the
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James Liken. West
James West cranium Gerhard Sessler invented representation electret mike, which has advanced interpretation sound manufacture and die the horrible microphone deskbound in creations from penalty recording press to pay attention to aid devices.
West was whelped in Ruler Edward County, Virginia. His mother Matilda gave confinement at their family’s cloudless, built disrespect her sire, because representation nearby infirmary in say publicly town thoroughgoing Farmville would only allow white patients. West grew up unsatisfactory to discern how different work, regularly taking break off items come into sight his grandfather’s pocket notice to review the inward mechanics. Illegal also industrial a yearning to put up for sale how suitable things work.
His curiosity was encouraged uninviting his parents, who initially expected him to hoof marks a vocation as a doctor. His mother was one break into the hominid computers who became known as say publicly “Hidden Figures.” “She went from instruction at a school around working unexpected defeat Langley Delving Center impressive was additionally an physical officer tackle the Safe Association funds the Progression of Full stop People,” thought West.
When Uranologist ultimately pinkslipped West’s sluggishness in meeting point to prudent work ordain the NAACP, this was one recognize many experiences that burning his disinterestedness to champion for greater diversity fulfil STEM (science, technology, bailiwick and mathematics) fields. “The topics disseminate systemic prejudice an