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Hearing Devices

The earliest of all hearing devices was written about by Girolama Cardano during the renaissance and mentioned the transmission of sound through bone. He showed how sound could be transmitted to the ear by holding a shaft or spear in the teeth. Some other early aids were carved out of wood and shaped like the ears of animals known to have exceptional hearing. Sign language was also beginning to be used around this time.

By 1650 ear trumpets were being used to mild effect. An ear trumpet or horn is shaped like the bell of a trumpet that tapers down to a smaller end that can be inserted into the ear. These devices work by gathering sound from a larger area and focusing it towards the ear, but because of acoustics the sound was often louder, but more difficult to understand.

The first behind the ear hearing aids weren’t introduced until 1855, and basically acted the same as an ear trumpet, but on a much smaller scale. It wasn’t until Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone that hearing aids began incorporating electrically amplified signals, but these were prohibitively large and expensive. The early 1900s saw a huge increase in the amount and types of hearing aids, although many were not improvements at all. By 1930 hearing aids were small enough, and powerful enough to be worn everywhere, all day long.

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