Herbert E. Shreeve
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Herbert E. Shreeve (1873 - 1942)[1] is a British telephone engineer who immigrated to the United States about 1895. He worked for AT&T as an engineer, and was in the Signal Corps during the first World War. He is notable for his work regarding early electric amplification, namely the development of the "carbon amplifier". Such a device may predate all latter amplifying devices, including the vacuum tube and the transistor. Shreeve could be the inventor of the earliest electric amplifier, as his work lead to the first practical long distance telephone circuits. He died in 1942, in Essex, New Jersey. [2]
Career[edit]
Shreeve invented the "carbon amplifier". [3] It is known that an early form of microphone, called a carbon microphone, can amplify voice signals. Shreeve, about 1903, utilized this effect. He mechanically linked a "telephone receiver" (a speaker in modern terms) to an adjacent carbon microphone. [4] The speaker would vibrate under the influence of a weak signal, typically voice. This would make the microphone vibrate, altering the electrical resistance of the microphone itself. If a voltage were placed across the microphone, it would be controlled by the input signal - but greater in magnitude.[5] Such efforts lead to an early electric amplifier. This made long distance telephony far easier in the era before electronic vacuum tubes or solid state technology. In addition, the carbon amplifier was one of the earliest. Shreeve worked for AT&T for most of his career - and was in San Francisco when the first transcontinental telephone call was completed. [6] Although Shreeve's results were imperfect (his amplifiers gave noisy signals and large distortions), his efforts and others' mark the beginning of the "electronic era" of amplified music, telephone signals, and long distance communication.
References[edit]
- ↑ "Herbert E Shreeve 1873 - 1942 BillionGraves Record". BillionGraves.
- ↑ "Carbon Button Microphone Amplifier - OneTubeRadio.com". onetuberadio.com.
- ↑ "Electro-Mechanical amplifiers". www.douglas-self.com.
- ↑ Cyclopedia of Telephony and Telegraphy, Vol. 1 a General Reference Work on Telephony, etc. Etc. 2005-04-14. Search this book on
- ↑ "Nick Strong's Carbon Amplifier at MAKEARADIO.COM". makearadio.com.
- ↑ "Western Electric News". 1914.
Herbert E. Shreeve[edit]
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