| 释义 |
microphone|ˈmaɪkrəʊfəʊn|
[f. Gr. µῑκρό-ς small + ϕωνή sound.]
1. An instrument by which small sounds can be intensified.
1683Phil. Trans. XIV. 482 Microphones or Micracousticks that is Magnifying ear instruments. 1727in Bailey vol. II. 1827 C. Wheatstone in Q. Jrnl. Sci. ii. 69 An instrument which, from its rendering audible the weakest sounds, may with propriety be called the Microphone. 1842Brande Dict. Sci., etc., Microphone, an instrument for increasing the intensity of low sounds.
2. spec. An instrument (invented almost simultaneously in 1878 by Prof. Hughes and Dr. Lüdtge) by means of which the telephone is made to reproduce faint sounds with more than their original intensity. Now applied to any instrument designed to convert sound waves impinging upon it into corresponding variations in voltage or current, which may then be amplified or transmitted for reconversion into sound (as in broadcasting and the telephone) or recorded; esp. one made as an independent unit (colloq. abbrev. mike n.5).
This function is that of all telephone ‘transmitters’. Hughes's instrument was simply a particularly sensitive one by the standards then current (hence the name: see quot. 1889), and modifications of it were for a time almost universally used as telephone transmitters, so that microphone became synonymous with transmitter and acquired its present more general meaning.
1878Hughes in Proc. Roy. Soc. XXVII. 365, I have also devised an instrument suitable for magnifying weak sounds, which I call a microphone. The microphone, in its present form, consists simply of a lozenge-shaped piece of gas carbon, one inch long [etc.]. 1889Preece & Maier Telephone iv. 37 Hughes' Microphone... The microphone is nothing but a telephonic transmitter, but it owes its name..to its power to convert vibrations of feeble intensity into undulatory currents, which, passing through a receiving telephone, produce sonorous vibrations of much greater intensity than those of the original source. 1891F. C. Allsop Telephones ii. 20 Prof. Hughes's microphone..forms the basis on which all the modern carbon transmitters are constructed. 1923W. S. Churchill World Crisis 1915 291 Already the microphone or hydrophone for detecting the beat of a submarine propeller in the distance had been discovered. 1923E. W. Marchant Radio Telegr. vi. 76 Suppose..that the emission of waves from the transmitting aerial is controlled by means of a microphone, such as is employed in the ordinary telephone transmitter, the stream of waves given out by the antenna will be varied in accordance with the fluctuations in the current passing through the microphone. 1929Morning Post 24 May 12/7 The engineer..in film-direction..has the last word as to whether the actor is speaking the line effectively for the microphone. 1935H. C. Bryson Gramophone Record iii. 59 Three main kinds of microphone are in common use: the carbon microphone, the condenser microphone, and the moving coil microphone. 1962A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio ii. 42 As an example of the sort of set-up which can be adopted in this type of studio is one where no less than six microphones were used for a quarter-hour playlet. 1970M. L. Gayford in T. L. Squires Telecommunications Pocket Bk. iv. 36 The standard modern telephone sets now in production in most countries represent a considerable improvement over earlier sets... Improved designs of microphone and receiver give a generally better frequency response and transient response.
3. Special Comb.: microphone boom, a boom (boom n.2 1 d) with a microphone at the end.
1931L. Cowan Recording Sound for Motion Pict. 377 Microphone boom, crane-like device for supporting and manipulating microphone. 1954Time 12 July 47/3 Joan Diener, instead of being forced to stand near a microphone boom in order to be heard, was able to move at will in a TV studio by means of a tiny concealed microphone transmitter. |