Sheep magazine Archive 2: issues 10-17

RAGS TO RICHES
BY FEEDING THE
KILLING MACHINE
adapted from Martin MITCHELL
https://martinmitchellsmicrophones.wordpress.com
T45 Noise-Cancelling Microphone (1944)
In 1942 after America entered World War 2, the US military estimated
that only 20% of radio communications in combat were successful.
Failure in the other 80% was mainly due to the voice of the radio
operator being drowned out by the surrounding cacophony of war.
Like no other conflict before, success on the battlefield relied on
communications. Spotting a gap in the market Al Khan and Ed Burrows,
the owners of Electro-Voice, came up with a brilliantly simple, ingenious
and cost effective solution to this problem.
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Even in 1942 the single button carbon microphone was a piece of old
fashioned tried and tested technology, having been in use in telephones
since the tail end of the previous century. Although the audio quality of
the T45 is little better than it’s telephonic predecessors it is extremely
reliable and very robust. It also has a high output making it ideal for long
distance communication. Even if the microphone gets wet you can simply
dry it out (as per the instructions above) and it will carry on working!
However, the really clever part of this design utilises 2 small holes of
equal size on the front and back of the mic. These allow the surrounding
June 2016