In this multi-part series, author David K. Kennedy provides a detailed timeline of the creation, development and refinement of P.A. loudspeaker drivers. For Part 1, Kennedy focuses on developments from the late 1800s to the 1950s, taking us from the invention of the telephone through movie house “talkies” to the popularity of the electric guitar and rock ‘n’ roll music.
P.A. Systems and Motion Picture Sound
Before I get into some of the modern P.A. (public-address) loudspeaker and driver design trends — over the next few months — I want to touch on many of the innovators and historical highlights — from several published sources — that shaped the development of P.A. loudspeaker driver and loudspeaker system history. The early beginnings of loudspeakers can be traced back to the telephone.
The 1800s
1861 — The first/crude type of electronic loudspeaker is developed by Johann Philipp Reis.
1876 — Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, works to produce a speaker based on Reis’ work.
1877 — The idea of an electromagnetic coil-driven speaker is introduced by Siemens founder Werner Von Siemens. While not a successful speaker, he is able to support the idea that amplification could be feasible based on his experiments.
1880s-1890s — Inventors think up of ways to use the telephone for a larger audience. Some simply attach a large horn to a telephone receiver to make a “loudspeaking telephone.” (This was where the term “loudspeaker” originated.)
1898 — British physicist Oliver Lodge invents the true moving-coil loudspeaker, the forebear of all loudspeakers since then.
The 1900s
1906 — The final piece of the first P.A. system “puzzle” emerges when American inventor Lee DeForest invents the Audion — the first device capable of amplifying an electrical signal.
1910 — The Automatic Electric Company of Chicago, IL, a supplier of automatic telephone switchboards, develops a loudspeaker called the Automatic Enunciator. They are deployed on a large scale in 1912 by the Associated Yacht and Power Boat Clubs of America. By 1913, an Automatic Enunciator system is installed within Chicago’s Comiskey Park baseball stadium.
1911 — From a laboratory in Napa, CA, Peter Jensen and Edwin Pridham start Magnavox (Latin for “Great Voice”) and file the first patent for a moving coil loudspeaker. See Fig. 1.
1915 — Jensen and Pridham’s Magnavox system is used to amplify speech and music at another large public event — a Christmas concert attended by 100,000 people, with an address by the mayor.
1919 — Woodrow Wilson becomes the first U.S. president to use a P.A. system. He uses a Magnavox system to address a crowd of 75,000 people in San Diego.
1920s — Western Electric develops one of the first commercial P.A. systems. The system uses vacuum tube amplifiers to amplify sound for large audiences.
Movie Theater Sound
1920s-1930s — Engineers invent the first loud, powerful amplifier and speaker systems for public address systems and movie theaters. These large P.A. systems and movie theater sound systems are too large and expensive to be used by touring musicians.
1921 — The earliest “talkies” — sound films with dialogue — emerge. D.W. Griffith’s film Dream Street premiered in New York in April 1921 as a silent film, with a non-silent version premiering in May. The non-silent version is still mostly silent, except for a single singing sequence and crowd noises. These relied on Photokinema, a sound-on-disc system synching sounds to film. The movie was also preceded by sound shorts, including a sequence with Griffith speaking directly to the audience. In 1923, Lee De Forest introduced the sound-on-film system Phonofilm, which had synchronized sound and dialogue, but the sound quality was poor and only used for short films.
1922 — The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is launched. Public interest in radio broadcasting grows, but listeners still needed to connect either earphones or gramophone horns to the first radio receivers. Later, as loudspeaker sensitivity improves, speakers are built into decorative cabinets and radio broadcasting takes off.
1924 — The moving coil principle was patented by Chester W. Rice of General Electric and Edward W. Kellog of AT&T. The two engineers made progress toward better-sounding audio. Their prototype had more dynamic range and wider frequency response, making it sound better than earlier horns. After several years, they perfected the product and called it the Radiola Loudspeaker #104 (See Fig. 2). It was sold in 1926 under the RCA brand (Radio Corporation of America).
1924 — Cyril French — and his three brothers — start the English brand Celestion. They created the first housed loudspeaker in 1925 and brought the permanent magnet moving-coil loudspeaker to market in 1932.
1925 — A Marconi P.A. was used by King George V to address 90,000 people during the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley stadium.
1925 — Shure, founded by Sidney N. Shure in Chicago, starts up as a supplier of radio parts kits. Shure first began manufacturing their own products in 1932 with the introduction of the 33N two-button carbon mic. Over the decades, the company evolved into a consumer and pro-audio-electronics manufacturer. See Milestones, this issue, page 42.
1926 — Engineers at AT&T/Western Electric — who later formed Altec Services Company — develop early systems for motion picture sound, including the Roxxy (wide-range one-way) folded horns (See Fig. 3). The first four Warners Brothers Vitaphone features, Don Juan and others that followed, had only a synchronized instrumental score and sound effects. The Jazz Singer (1927) is often credited as the first “talkie” since it added synchronized singing sequences and speech.
1927 — James Bullough Lansing (born James Martini) and his business partner Ken Decker start the Lansing Manufacturing Company in Los Angeles to manufacture six-and-eight-inch speaker drivers for radios.
1927 — Lou Burroughs and Albert R. Kahn begin a small business called Radio Engineers, in South Bend, IN. This became Electro-Voice in 1930, which expanded and moved to Buchanan, MI in 1946.
1928 — Herman J. Fanger files a patent that described what came to be known as the co-axial two-way speaker, with a small high frequency horn and diaphragm nested inside or in front of a cone loudspeaker.
1928 — British engineer Guy Fountain changes his battery charger company name to Tannoy. During World War II Tannoy P.A. systems were supplied to the armed forces, in great numbers. As a result, the term “tannoy” came to be used in British English for any P.A. system.
1929 — J. D. Seabert of Westinghouse develops a horn-type loudspeaker that directed the sounds of human speech toward the audience better than cone speakers that were intended for the over-all sound.
1930 — AT&T’s Western Electric establishes a division to install loudspeakers and electronic products for motion-picture use. By 1932, only two percent of theaters operating in America remained not wired for sound.
1931 — Alan Dower Blumlein invents what he called “binaural sound,” now known as stereophonic sound. He received 128 patents and was considered one of the most significant engineers and inventors of his time.
1931-1932 — Bell Telephone Laboratories develops P.A. systems for use in public spaces, integrating advanced amplifier technology with microphone systems. In 1931, Bell Labs developed a two-way loudspeaker, noted for its “divided range.” In 1932, Albert L. Thuras filed a patent for the bass-reflex principle while at Bell Labs. These systems became more prevalent in the 1930s.
1932 — RCA demonstrates a dual-range speaker for theaters, four years after Dr. Harry F. Olson moves from Iowa to New Jersey to work for the company. Olson wrote 10 books and was awarded more than 100 patents during his career.
1933 — Dr. Wente (the ‘Father’ of Electro-Acoustics) and A. L. Thuras demonstrated a new three channel system called “stereophonic” before the National Academy of Sciences and many invited guests at Constitution Hall in Washington, DC. They developed special loudspeakers with uniform response over the whole tonal range of an orchestra, including the multicellular horn for this demonstration. The first Progress Medal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers was presented to Dr. Wente in 1935.
1934 — Douglas Shearer and John Hilliard at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) develop a standard theater speaker system. James B. Lansing and Dr. John F. Blackburn of Caltech designed a 2-way speaker system. Dr. Blackburn’s initial responsibility on the Shearer Project involved design work on the new Lansing model 284 compression driver. He was also involved in the development of the 15XS bass driver, working under Lansing’s direction. Later, Dr. Blackburn and Lansing would modify the 284 design to address a perceived patent issue which resulted in the model 285.
1937 — MGM introduces the better-sounding “Shearer Horn System for Theatres” (which added bass horns to the high-frequency horns) to the film industry, to great effect. See Fig. 4
1937 — ERPI was purchased as part of an consent decree in 1937. They reincorporated as Altec Service Company with “Altec” standing for “all technical.”
1939 — A very-large public address system was mounted on a tower at Flushing Meadows, during the New York World’s Fair. Rudy Bozak designed a cluster of eight 27” Cinaudagraph loudspeakers in 30” frames with huge 450 lb. field coil magnets, covering low frequency frequencies in the 2-way P.A. system.
R&D Meets M&A
1940 — Dr. Leo Beranek receives his D.Sc. in Acoustics. He would go on to became one of the most respected figures in the history of acoustics and audio engineering. During World War II, Beranek managed Harvard’s electro-acoustics laboratory, which designed communications and noise reduction systems for World War II aircraft. During this time, he built the first anechoic chamber. In 1947, he became a professor at MIT. His 1954 book, Acoustics (updated in 1986) is considered the classic textbook in this field. He was a founding partner of the BBN acoustic consulting firm, which rose to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, opening offices in five cities and became a mentoring and training ground for a generation of acoustical consultants. In 2003 Dr. Beranek was presented with the National Medal of Science by President George Bush.
1941 — The Altec Services Company purchases the bankrupt Lansing Manufacturing Company and melds the two names, forming the Altec Lansing Corporation.
1942 — Brüel & Kjær (B&K) is founded by Per Vilhelm Brüel and Viggo Kjær. Holger Nielsen joined the company as a third partner in 1945. Brüel & Kjær (Sound and Vibration Measurement A/S) is a Danish multinational engineering and electronics company headquartered in Nærum, near Copenhagen. It was the largest producer in the world of equipment for acoustic and vibrational measurements. In 2019, Brüel & Kjær merged with Hottinger Baldwin Messtechnik, changing its name to Hottinger Brüel & Kjær.
1943 — Altec introduces their Duplex driver, dramatically improving sound performance. The Altec Duplex is arguably the most famous speaker driver ever made. It remained in continuous production from 1943 to 1998 and set the standard for critical monitoring applications. Through the 1950’s, and into the 1970’s, the 604 was used by more recording and broadcast studios than all other monitor systems combined. George Carrington, the president of Altec Lansing, recognized the applicability of the new, significantly more powerful Alnico V magnetic material to speaker design and authorized research on its incorporation into their current products (see Fig. 5). The next year, Lansing and Hilliard redefine the reference movie theater loudspeaker system as the model A-4, renamed “Voice of the Theatre” (See Fig. 6). The most often used Voice of the Theatre system was the A-4. Some of these nine-foot-tall units are still in use. Later, the relatively compact A-7, measuring just 54 inches in height, became popular within smaller churches and theaters.
1944 — Rudy Bozak joins C.G. Conn in to help them develop an electronic organ. While in Elkhart, IN, he noticed that the human sense of hearing was unpredictable at best. In 1948, Bozak moved his family to North Tonawanda, NY to develop organ loudspeakers for Wurlitzer. While there, he built a loudspeaker lab in his home basement.
1945 — Roberto Coppini and Fernando Borrani started BBC Elettroacustica Professionale (later B&C Speakers) in Florence, Italy. Their drivers and horns were used mainly for P.A. applications including cinemas, theatres and over the piazzas of Italy during the 1948 political election campaign.
1946 — J. B. Lansing leaves Altec and founds Lansing Sound, Inc. The new company’s first product was the model D101 15-inch loudspeaker, a near copy of the earlier Altec Lansing model 515. Their first original product was the D130, a 15-inch transducer for which a variant remained in production for the next 55 years. The D130 broke new ground by having a 4-inch flat ribbon wire voice coil with an Alnico V magnet. Despite his engineering skills, Lansing struggled as a businessman. Facing financial difficulties, his company underwent changes in ownership. It was acquired by Marquardt in 1948 and sold to General Tire Co. in 1949, then divested and reincorporated as James B. Lansing Sound — later JBL. See Figs. 7 and 8
1946 — Paul W. Klipsch, known for developing a high-efficiency folded horn loudspeaker, starts Klipsch & Associates a year after receiving a patent for his speaker design. The Klipschorn is still manufactured and sold worldwide. Klipsch was awarded AES’ second-highest honor, the Silver Medal, for his contributions to speaker design and distortion measurement in 1978, and he was inducted into the Engineering and Science Hall of Fame in 1997. He obtained 20 design patents over the course of his career.
1947 — British Rola buys Celestion and moves production to Thames Ditton a year later under the Rola Celestion company name, with its products sold under the Celestion brand. The company continued making radio, Hi-Fi and television speakers in the postwar years. In 1949, Rola Celestion was bought by Truvox, a P.A. system manufacturer.
1949 — RCF begins in Italy. By the late 1960s, concert sound was going electric, and RCF was one of the first European OEM suppliers of high-power drivers for international brands. After a few years, RCF began to develop and produce sound reinforcement systems under the same brand.
1949 — Rola Celestion, bought out of receivership, is repositioned for growth. Truvox’s public address loudspeaker systems would soon be folded into the diverse product range of Rola and Celestion, and for the next two decades Celestion was under Truvox. However, by the late 1950s, Celestion prevailed as the dominant brand.
1949 — Cliff Digre starts the Minneapolis Speaker Reconing Company. In 1956, MISCO developed and built a large driver order for a drive-in theater. In 1990, Cliff Digre’s son, Dan Digre, took over as president of MISCO, building a new factory and expanding into new markets including aerospace, medical and pro audio.
1949 — Charlie Watkins and his brother Reg opened Watkins Electric Music, a record shop in London.
Late 1940’s — Tom Wong was one of the first owners of a sound system in Kingston, Jamaica. Sound clashing began on the streets of Kingston in the 1950s. Sound systems were led by people such as Tom Wong, Duke Reid, and Sir Coxsone, and began with stacks of speakers set up, playing U.S. R&B records. The competition involved two or more sound systems battling to produce the best selections and performance to be crowned victorious by the watching crowd. Sound system culture was somewhere Black people could unite and enjoy as one with the freedom of being themselves, in Jamaica and the UK.
1950s — Gilbert Briggs embarked on an ambitious collaboration. Quad’s Peter Walker supplied the amplification and Wharfedale built the loudspeaker systems; they embarked on what was to become an industry-defining series of concerts wherein audiences were invited to experience live versus recorded music firsthand. They toured UK and the U.S. playing at venues as auspicious as the Royal Festival Hall in London and Carnegie Hall in New York. Wharfedale Wireless Works, started in the early 1930s, was sold to the Rank Organization in 1958, a move which led to rapid development and expansion of the hi-fi brand into areas such as electronics and P.A. loudspeakers. (see Fig. 9)
1950s-1960s — Sound systems for motion pictures were the primary market, but things really started to get interesting, as the invention of the electric guitar and the growing popularity of rock ‘n’ roll increased the need for better P.A. systems… Altec Lansing becomes widely known for high-quality speakers and audio equipment. The company’s products were used by top musicians and recording studios, and its speakers were considered the gold standard of the industry. Even so, by 1958, Altec Lansing was sold in bankruptcy. By the 1980s, the company would file for bankruptcy a second time. There have been several owners since then, including EVI Audio and Telex.
1951 — CIARE is founded by Dino Giannini. For the first 30 years CIARE provided consulting in research and development of loudspeakers. In 1980, CIARE’s commercial brand, Electronic Melody, started selling products for Hi-Fi, cars and DIY pro audio. In 1990, CIARE developed and patented the first concentric coaxial driver.
1952 — Rudy Bozak launches Bozak Loudspeakers in Stamford, CT. Bozak designed a stereo loudspeaker system used by Emory Cook to make stereo recordings that impressed listeners in the early 1950s. By the mid-1950s, Bozak had expanded into new quarters in South Norwalk, CT with an export office in Hicksville, NY. The foundation of Bozak loudspeaker design was the unique Bozak woofer cone.
1954 — Gene Czerwinski, an aerospace engineer, founds Cerwin-Vega in Los Angeles. Czerwinski’s goal was to reproduce the live musical experience based on high-efficiency drivers, durability, and a “value for money products.” Cerwin-Vega also introduced the world’s first solid-state amplifier, rated at 125W, in 1957.
1956 — Ed May, who joined JBL, gets involved in all aspects loudspeaker engineering. Within three years, he would become JBL’s primary transducer and systems engineer. He worked closely with Bart Locanthi who had been the primary technical resource as a consultant at JBL since 1950. May became a director, reporting to Locanthi, and was responsible for all new product development. In these capacities, Locanthi and May would work as a team for the next decade. Locanthi was the acknowledged theoretician while May was the practitioner that could take basic concepts and develop them into fully detailed products.
1956 — Richard “Dick” Heyser joined Caltech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). While employed fulltime as a “rocket scientist,” he had a passion for audio. He was a member of AES for three decades and was president-elect of the society when he died in 1987. A fellow of the Acoustical Society of America as well as AES, he was awarded nine patents in the field of audio and communication techniques, including Time-Delay Spectrometry (TDS). His research helped open the door to the development of TEF analyzers by the Techron division of Crown audio.
In the preface for a paper he was preparing at the time of his passing (in 1987), Heyser wrote that “perhaps more than any other discipline, audio engineering involves not only purely objective characterization but also subjective interpretations. It is the listening experience, that personal and most private sensation, which is the intended result of our labors in audio engineering. No technical measurement, however glorified with mathematics, can escape that fact.”
David K. Kennedy’s History of P.A. Loudspeakers, Part 2 will appear in a future issue of FRONT of HOUSE.
