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Period: to
STEM 7- 1950s - Present day
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Late 1800s
Telephone switchboard operators began using headphones with quarter-inch jacks as they answered and directed calls. -
1891
French engineer Ernest Jules Pierre Mercadier received a U.S. patent for ear buds for use as telephone receivers. -
1910
Electrical engineer Nathaniel Baldwin develops and creates headphones. -
1919
Some very sensitive headphones were commonly used for early radio work. -
1930- 1931
Company Beyerdynamic officially invented headphones and commercialized them. John C. Kross invented first stereo headphones. He also invented a phonograph that incorporated a speaker and headphone jacks. -
1964 - 1979
Sony Corp. released its hand-held EFM-117J radio, an early use of the smaller 3.5mm headphone-jack socket. Sony launched its first personal stereo Walkman, the “TPS-L2,” making headphones ubiquitous. -
1979
Sony launched its first personal stereo Walkman, the “TPS-L2,” making headphones ubiquitous. -
1997
Dutch inventor Jaap Haartsen performed early research on Bluetooth Wireless Technology and filed an important patent. -
1999
Telecom vendor Ericsson AB launched Bluetooth commercially, allowing data to be exchanged over short distances using radio waves. -
2008
Sony unveiled the first digital noise-canceling headphone. This set, called MDR-NC500D, could block 99% of noise in the 160HZ range, almost the range of a jet engine. -
2016
Apple removes the headphone jack. Users will be able to plug headphones into the iPhone 7’s lightning port, or purchase a pair of wireless ear buds, called Apple AirPods, for $159.
