Headphones are electric gadgets that allow a single user to listen to a conversation or music privately. The first headphones were developed in the late 19th century to let telephone operators plug the phones over their heads so that their hands remain free for dialing and connecting phones.
The word Headphone may sound odd today as most of the present-day world use earphones. These little tiny buds that we plug our ears with were once giants’ in size and shape and worn overheads as a headband to hear music, mostly. But for the current kids, they might look like monsters from outer space!
The evolution process seems to have modified even this ubiquitous headgear into tiny gadgets, small enough to fill our ears and at the same time loud enough to bash our eardrums with music.
Before getting into the details and types of headphones, a peep into its genesis, how it got its name, and who coined this name, etc. will help you understand its journey through times to its present-day Avatar.
The genesis of the word Headphone
Though officially no individual or any commercial establishment can lay claim to having invented headphones or the very word itself, a few prominent and pioneering personalities and entities come to be reckoned as its inventors of sorts. It does not seem to have an etymological lineage to trace the origins of the word headphones.
Neither the major Dictionaries in English language nor the prominent Thesaurus of the world have attempted to trace the origin of the word headphones. Both these highly revered reference tools define what a headphone is but have little or nothing to say about the origin of the word.
More probably, the word headphone is a mixture of two words denoting two different things- the human head and the phone. Since the early models of this equipment were used as a band overhead with phone sound amplifiers in both ears, the contraption was named as a headphone. And it struck.
Evolution of Headphones
As early as the 1880s, when even the basic telephone was in its infancy, telephone operators were known to be using headphones for hearing to the calls and connect people over phone lines. The first version of these gadgets consisted of a single earpiece that rested on the user’s shoulder.
Technically they might be called “shoulder phones”! Maybe this was the time when the word headphone was coined to signify it belongs to head and not to shoulder!
A decade or so later in the 1890s, a British company called Electrophone unveiled a network system that enabled its customers to connect to live performances at theatres and opera houses in London. This was considered a phenomenal breakthrough in technology though it was mighty costly, understandably.
This Electrophone Company’s hearing gadget was more of a necklace like contraption with two giant pairs of earphones connected below the chin and held by a rod. This was like a girdle’ in the neck and too heavy for comfort. It resembled more a stethoscope than a functional headphone.
At around the same time in 1891, a French Engineer by name Ernest Mercadier got a first-ever patent sanctioned in his name for his invention of headphones. Unlike the earlier headphones in use, the headset created by Ernest had the additional feature of blocking outside noise. This was probably due to the use of earbuds in his headphones – a first in those days.
The War Days
Just as the WWI and the years leading to it shook up pretty much every arena of life in one way or the other, the World War I has given a great fillip to the headphone ecosystem too. What was basically mainland equipment being harnessed by the telephone companies, the headphone has attracted the attention of the US Navy.
The year was 1910. The place was Utah in the USA. A struggling engineer named Nathaniel Baldwin forwarded a pair of home-made audio hearing headsets to the US Army with a request to test them for their operations. These were assembled by the poor engineer on his kitchen table using mundane tools and basic raw material like copper wire.
The Navy found them to be a shade above the ones the Navy Operations Team was using and summoned a few dozen of those from Nathaniel. The Engineer who was hardly able to make both ends meet dug deep into the task and could only assemble 10 for the Navy.
That was how one of the earliest versions of headphones got out into unchartered territories away from the telephone companies. It was deemed to be the first official headphone ever to have been used on a larger and wider scale.
After a lull of nearly two and a half decades, the headphone got into the notice of the world once again on a much wider platform. It was in the year 1937 that ear padding was first introduced in the headphone sets. The earlier headphones were often uncomfortable to wear for long periods.
And then the revolution of the 1950s upped the ante for the headphone with music industry adopting it in a great way. It Record label EMI- one of the original and early birds of the music industry- introduced stereo recordings in the year 1957, which led to the creation of stereo headphones a year later.
And it was Sony- the electronics giant from Japan- with the introduction of its Walkman has metamorphosed the very existence and shape of headphones. It became pretty portable equipment and had wider acceptance because of its sleekness and high quality of sound.
The 1980s saw the headphone turning into a pencil-thin band overhead with lovely sleek earplugs carrying music to the ears.
Come to Apple in the early 2000s, the whole scenario of headphones changed tectonically. IPods have almost totally replaced their giant counterparts’ headphones.
If there is one product which has a hazy etymological existence and which had evolved through tweaks to total changeover – it is the headphone, for sure. A product no one is sure who named but whose name is on everyone’s lip- the Headphone- has come a long way since its early ancestors have moved around in bulky shapes and delivered sounds too rustic and barely enjoyable compared to the present day finesse.
Finally, if you want to buy a pair of safe noise cancelling headphones, then below is our list of recommendations based on quality, price and users’ feedback
For more information about noise cancelling headphones and headphones in general you might want to have a look at our list of e-books below
- Your health and headphones
- The In and out of anti-noise headphones
- Evolution of headphones technology
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