{"id":938,"date":"2019-06-07T08:54:53","date_gmt":"2019-06-07T12:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/charlestonhearing.com\/?p=938"},"modified":"2019-06-24T19:35:04","modified_gmt":"2019-06-24T23:35:04","slug":"the-history-of-hearing-aids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hearingsc.com\/the-history-of-hearing-aids\/","title":{"rendered":"The History of Hearing Aids"},"content":{"rendered":"

Think hearing aids are a new invention, created in Moncks Corner<\/a> just to treat baby boomers and those of the greatest generation?<\/p>\n

Think again.<\/p>\n

Hearing loss<\/strong> has been a problem since the beginning, and when there is a problem there are often people actively trying to solve it.<\/p>\n

For many years, individuals with hearing loss were heavily discriminated against as they were thought to be disabled<\/em>. It was not until the 16th<\/sup> century when a Spanish monk disproved this theory.<\/p>\n

Pedro Ponce was able to teach the deaf sons of a nobleman how to read, write, speak and do math.<\/p>\n

When Was the First Hearing Device Invented?<\/h2>\n

The very first device designed to help the hearing impaired<\/strong> was created in the 17th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

They were called ear trumpets<\/em> and came in a number of shapes and sizes.<\/p>\n

Back in the day, they were able to get creative with materials; ear trumpets were made from everything from sheet iron to animal horns.<\/p>\n

Next came the collapsible ear trumpet, created in the late 18th<\/sup> century.<\/p>\n

In the early 1800s Frederick C. Rein was able to commercially produce the ear trumpets.<\/p>\n

In order to make them less noticeable, Rein popularized \u201cacoustic headbands,\u201d which allowed the user to hide the hearing device in their hair.<\/p>\n

When Was the First Hearing Aid Introduced?<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"stackBelieve it or not, Alexander Graham Bell<\/a>\u2019s invention of the telephone in 1876 was the catalyst needed for the invention of the first hearing aid<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Within the telephone was the technology needed to control the loudness, frequency and distortion of sounds.<\/p>\n

In 1898, Miller Reese Hutchison created the first electric hearing aid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His design used an electric current to amplify weak signals.<\/p>\n

1913 brought about the first commercially manufactured hearing aid.<\/p>\n

These devices were cumbersome and not very portable.<\/p>\n

In 1920, vacuum-tube hearing aids were produced.<\/p>\n

These tubes were able to turn speech into electric signals and then the signals themselves were amplified.<\/p>\n

World War II ushered in a number of technological advances, including military helicopters<\/a>, the first jet-powered fighter planes and the use of radar to detect enemy aircraft.<\/p>\n

In addition came the idea of miniaturization. In 1948 the transistor was invented.<\/p>\n

Transistors were able to replace the vacuum tubes in hearing aids and were smaller, needed less battery power and had less distortion.<\/p>\n

In the 1970s, the microprocessor and the multi-channel amplitude compression were created.<\/p>\n

The microprocessor brought miniaturization to a new level and the compression ushered in the use of digital technology.<\/p>\n

From there, hearing aids<\/a> evolved at pretty quick pace.<\/p>\n

High-speed processors and microcomputers were created in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

The first all-digital hearing aid was created in the 1990s. And the 2010s brought the idea of Bluetooth\u00ae enabled devices and rechargeable batteries into the mix.<\/p>\n

Want to be part of your own hearing aid journey? Contact your Moncks Corner<\/a> audiologist today to learn more.<\/p>\n

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Related Hearing Loss Posts:<\/h3>\n