CultureUpIndigenous Black memory, source trails, and public records

Start Here Dispatch Participate Support Search

Browse CultureUp

Patent holder profile

James E. West and the electret microphone patent record

West's microphone route preserves Gerhard Sessler as co-inventor and Bell Labs as assignee while reading audio technology as public-record memory.

Why this belongs on CultureUp

West is a public-record memory story.

This belongs on CultureUp because the patent record connects invention to place, public institutions, work systems, laboratories, employers, federal or corporate assignment, and the limits of public records.

Sprint 5 priority 6 / not final rankStatus: source_reviewedSource grade: A-

Patent: 3118022: Electroacoustic Transducer
Issue date: 1964-01-14
Place: Murray Hill, New Jersey
Record strength: Patent-record facts are attached with at least one public context source. CultureUp still separates patent proof from biography, adoption, commercialization, and identity claims.
Identity evidence: Public context source attached where available; CultureUp does not use the patent row alone as race, ancestry, lineage, or Indigenous Black identity proof.
Sprint priority: 6 / not final rank
Cluster: Electronics, audio, and space systems
Co-inventors: Gerhard M. Sessler
Assignee: Bell Telephone Laboratories / corporate assignee
Needed before promotion: Promotion language should remain limited until source-led context, assignment, co-inventor, and commercialization review is complete.
Why this record matters: The page lets CultureUp connect sound technology to corporate research systems without erasing team invention or assignment.

What the public record supports

U.S. Patent No. 3118022, issued January 14, 1964.
Gerhard M. Sessler as co-inventor.
Bell Telephone Laboratories as assignee.
NIHF public context for the electret microphone.

What remains open

Separate source trail for production, adoption, and scale.
Bell Labs employment and assignment context.
How to connect audio public memory without solo-invention shorthand.

Article profile

Read the person, place, invention, and record separately.

CultureUp keeps each layer visible so a patent record does not get stretched into claims the source trail cannot support.

The patent record

3118022 was issued on 1964-01-14 for Electroacoustic Transducer. The route preserves Gerhard M. Sessler as co-inventor. The route also names Bell Telephone Laboratories as corporate assignee, because inventor status and assignment are different public-record facts.

The person in the record

The attached public context sources support a reader-facing profile frame. Any deeper life history, family record, school record, employment file, or community memory needs its own source trail.

Place attached to the claim

Murray Hill, New Jersey is the public place anchor used for this route. CultureUp does not infer local family continuity from the patent row alone.

The invention

The invention is summarized from the public patent title and source trail. Technical, market, institutional, and adoption claims stay limited to what the attached sources can support.

Business, labor, and use

Modern patent records often separate inventor, employer, assignee, licensee, and beneficiary. CultureUp keeps those categories apart instead of treating a patent as proof of ownership, wealth, adoption, or public impact.

What the record cannot prove

The patent record does not by itself prove full biography, race, ancestry, Indigenous Black identity, commercialization, institutional adoption, economic benefit, modern product lineage, or community memory.

Identity and correction note

CultureUp treats this as Black American patent memory only through public, reviewable sources. The page does not certify ancestry, descent, tribe, nationality, family history, or private identity.

Send stronger patent images, assignment records, employer records, licensing documents, public biographies, or source corrections through CultureUp's correction path.

Patent records do not prove final rank, private identity, solo credit when co-inventors appear, employment ownership, commercialization, adoption, or later public impact.

Indexable as a source-led Sprint 5 profile with visible source limits.

Employer, assignee, and inventor status are not interchangeable. CultureUp names assignees when the patent record does.

Do not use this page to make absolute first, ownership, adoption, or commercialization claims without a separate source trail.

Patent records

Grant trail

Grant rank and unique-holder rank are shown separately so repeat patentees do not distort the chronological sequence.

modern_systems_candidateSprint priority 6Not public rankutility patenthigh

3118022: Electroacoustic Transducer

James E. West / 1964-01-14

Sprint 5 modern systems candidate. The page must preserve Gerhard M. Sessler as co-inventor and Bell Telephone Laboratories as assignee.

Residence: Murray Hill, New Jersey
Category: audio electronics / microphone systems
Source status: high
Chronology handling: modern_systems_candidate
Cluster: Electronics, audio, and space systems
Co-inventors: Gerhard M. Sessler
Assignee: Bell Telephone Laboratories / corporate assignee
Primary sources: 2 mapped

Source trail

Claims stay tied to source limits.

Electronics, audio, and space systems

Sources for precision electronics, microphones, imaging, optical transmission, detector systems, and science instruments.

patent text mirrorco-inventor and Bell Labs patent record

US3118022A - Electroacoustic Transducer

Google Patents / 1964 patent record

Supports: Shows Gerhard M. Sessler and James E. West as inventors, Bell Telephone Laboratories as assignee, and an electroacoustic transducer patent published January 14, 1964.
Limit: The patent record verifies invention data, co-inventor names, assignee, and issue date. It does not by itself prove solo invention, full biography, commercialization, public memory, or economic benefit.
Last checked: 2026-06-09
Source URL: https://patents.google.com/patent/US3118022A/en

Public memory

Objects, museums, and public interpretation records that help readers see how an invention remains visible.

public inventor profileco-inventor public profile

James E. West

National Inventors Hall of Fame / current public profile

Supports: Identifies West and Gerhard Sessler with the electret microphone and U.S. Patent No. 3,118,022.
Limit: Does not support solo-invention language or erase Bell Telephone Laboratories as assignee.
Last checked: 2026-06-09
Source URL: https://www.invent.org/inductees/james-e-west