Language, Literacy and Storytelling: Day 22 - James Edward Mateo West

Monday, February 24, 2020

Day 22 - James Edward Mateo West - Testing, 1,2,3 Testing

I am a fierce advocate of using a microphone when you are performing. It is an amazing tool that allows you to fill a room without straining your instrument. Who knew there was an African American inventor to thank for it?

James West was born in Farmville, Prince Edward County, VA in 1931.

He was a smart kid who was fascinated with - wait for it - taking things apart. Because of his love for dismantling things, he had a bad experience with electricity when he was a kid. It had something to do with taking a radio apart.

"If I had a screwdriver and a pair of pliers, anything that could be opened was in danger," James West

Me? I stuck a knife in a toaster when I was a kid and got a bad shock up my arm. What did I learn? Electricity is not a thing to play with. Oh, and I never stuck a knife in a toaster again.

What did James West learn from getting shocked while taking a radio apart? He shocked himself badly and decided he really needed to play with electricity some more.

This is why he is an amazing inventor, and I am a person who just points at amazing inventors and says, "Wow, look at that."

West's parents were not too keen on his love of tinkering. They knew their son was brilliant, and they were worried if he wasn't careful he wouldn't be able to get a job. Jim Crow was still ravaging the southern United States and his parents couldn't think of any black scientists who were working or making a living.

They wanted him to be a doctor.

He wanted to play with electricity.

So, he went off to Temple University and in 1957 he got a Masters in Physics.

Bell Labs hired him.

(An aside here - we owe quite a bit to Bell Labs. They were clearly more worried about getting trained scientists than having a homogenous workforce.)

Electric Transducer

In 1962, James Edward Mateo West, physicist, invented electric transducer technology. He was working to improve hearing aids. Today, this technology is in use in baby monitors, telephones, camcorders, hearing aids, audio recording devices, and microphones.

That's right! West is responsible for the technology that you can find in ninety percent of the microphones manufactured in the world.

Look at all of these storytellers using microphones!

I have never James West. I love him.

He is something called an acoustician. He helps balance acoustics in a space and measures sound levels in people's workplaces. Spaces can be designed to either increase the pleasures of a sound in a performance space or decrease the stress of a work environment by tempering the level of noise.

He has also done a great deal of activism work encouraging minority middle and high school students who are interested in going into the sciences.

He co-founded the Association of Black Laboratory Employees (ABLE) which deals with placement and promotional concerns of minority staff members.

He established the Corporate Research Fellowship Program for Grad Students In Science as well as a summer institute for non-white students

In 2015 Dr. West served on the board of directors for the Ingenuity Project in Baltimore that supports talented middle school students who want to go into the sciences.

Aside from holding over 250 patents that deal with acoustics, he also has been given tons of awards. Here are a few: