Have you heard...History of Hearing Aids

The first documented evidence of the existence and use of a hearing aid dates back to the 16^th century. Its inventor is unknown but many sources from that time discuss several hearing aid devices. In 1588, in his book Magia Naturalis, Giovanni Porta describes hearing aids in the form of animal ears. Later on, other sources talk about horns, trumpets, speaking tubes and various devices worn around the body. However, these were hardly mass manufactured but more likely custom made for specific clients.

In 1800, Frederick C. Rein established in London the first company for commercial manufacture of hearing aids. The hearing aids he offered were non-electric and include acoustic urns, speaking tubes and ear trumpets.

Soon after, in 1836, Alphonsus William Webster patented a curved earpiece worn behind the ear, known as the first British patent for a hearing aid.  Even more patents were issued in the upcoming decades. One belonged to James A. Maloney for his ear trumpet with a diaphragm earpiece in 1887. With the beginning of the 20^th century hearing aid research and the associated industry developed rapidly. In 1923, vacuum tube hearing aids were introduced and in 1934 they were upgraded to operate with batteries.

In the early 1950s, the vacuum tube hearing aids were replaced with the transistor hearing aids. These led on to the development of the behind the ear and the eyeglass temples models, which in 1954 were already electronic. In 1955, in the ear hearing aid was introduced.

From the 1970s onwards, the hearing aid models began to resemble the modern devices for hearing impairment we know today. The introduction of the electret/FET microphone played an important role in every hearing aid thatmeant that the receiver and the microphone could be kept in one case as forbehind the ear, in the ear and in the canal hearing aids.

The invention of in the canal hearing aid in 1983 was followed by the completely in the canal hearing aid introduced in 1993. Soon after, in 1996, the first successful digital hearing aid device was a fact.
By 2005, 90% of the hearing aid fittings used digital signal processing technology as opposed to the analogue technology.

Nowadays, hearing aids are various and come in many different shapes and sizes including behind the ear, in the ear, in the canal, completely in the canal, open fits, receiver in the ear, body worn, bone conduction, CROS, BiCROS and disposable hearing aids.

Newspaper information piece; "Have You Heard"

Each and every single week from Friday 27th onwards Bexhill Hearing Centre will be dispensing a little bit of knowledge in the Bexhill, Hastings, Rye and Battle Observers as well as the local Resident. Tiny snippets of information about the world of hearing, to remind our customers that our knowledge and advice is always available.

From the latest audio technology to hearing loss management, there will be something for everyone, whether you suffer from a hearing loss or not.

Items to be covered in the first 6 weeks include: (in no particular order)

Hearing loss; why it happens
Ear Wax maintenance
History of Hearing Aids
Coping with Tinnitus
Waterproof Hearing
Ototoxicity

We are hoping that the articles will become Blog like, allowing the public to follow the story. They will also be teamed up with further information here and on our website (www.BexhillHearingCentre.com) so that more complete information can be provided.

Famous quotes from history about Hearing

George Bernard Shaw

That is what all poets do: they talk to themselves out loud; and the world overhears them. But it’s horribly lonely not to hear someone else talk sometimes. "(Marchbanks, in Candida)

Bible

Does not the ear test words, as the palate tastes its food? - Job 12:11

Pete Townshend

I have unwittingly helped to invent and refine a type of music that makes its principal components deaf. Hearing loss is a terrible thing because it cannot be repaired.

Samuel Johnson

"In order that all men may be taught to speak the truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it."

Bible

He who has ears to hear, let him hear. - Mark, 4:9

Mark Antony

"Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears."

Beethoven

"Oh you men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn, or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me. You do not know the secret cause which makes me seem that way to you. Oh how harshly was I flung back by the doubly sad experience of my bad hearing."

"But what a humiliation for me when someone standing next to me heard a flute in the distance and I heard nothing, or someone standing next to me heard a shepherd singing and again I heard nothing. Such incidents drove me almost to despair; a little more of that and I would have ended my life - it was only my art that held me back. "