Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1924-07-30
Radio Brightens
Lives for Deaf
Rapid Progress Being Made
in Experiments.

Washington.-Radio Is Frightening
the lives of many persons VINO are
bard of hearing. New radio expert
Unents are Fastening progress In ap-
paratus for overcoming deafness. The
prospects there are really remarkable.
But some of the stories about deaf
people being cured by radio are fairy
tales, beautiful but untrue.
These and other unadorned facts
about the misunderstood subject of
radio and hearing are related and ex-
planned by Miss Josephine Undertake,
who is the superintendent of the volta
bureau, which Alexander Graham Bell
Founded "for the increase and diffu-
sion of knowledge relating to the
dealt"
More than once the report has been
circulated that some individual, deaf
and mute from birth, picked up radio
earphoneS and was enchanted to find
that he could understand every word
of a speech. This is not plausible. To
a person who had never learned the
souUls of English words, the radios
message, if heard, would be totally I'M
Ineligible. Other equally exaggerated
stories are also current.
Effect is Like Telephone.
The effect of radio upon the deaf
person is neither mysterious nor SUI
pernaturaI. 1t is not unlike the effect
of the telephone. Every one knows
some person who is hard of hearing,
but who can converse comfortably
over telephone. The telephone sends
che message concentrated and direct
TO the ear. Then, too, the receiver is
usually pressed against the bone in
front or back of the ear and this
causes the message to be carried by
what is known as bone conduction. In
stead of travelling from the outer ear,
through the middle ear passage to the
fEner ear, sound vibrations are caught
by one of the head bones and carried
direct to the inner ear. In coEse-
quence, if the persons trouble is in
the middle ear, where so many hear
ing difficulties are located, he may be
able to use a telephone with a success
chat surprises his friends.
Radio apparatus is even more ac-
NOEiitbNtllIS lAipll lllC ltlCJllOuC. L u6
Individual who is hard of hearing gen
orally requires a rather powerful and
delicate set. Whether a deaf person
can hear over radio set depends on
the extent and character of his deaf
ness. Roughly speaking, if the appa-
CatUs in his head is sufficiently sensi-
Give to catch the highly amplified
sounds he can.
AS 70 the possibility of radio I'M
proving His hearing in ordinary con-
wersarfon, This is not very likely It
may be that practice in hearing voices
over the radio makes the deaf person,
who is apt to avoid conversation, more
successful in catching the words of
his friends. 1t may be, too that the
radio apparatus stimulates the ear to
a slightly greater sensitiveness.
Loud Speaker Was Too Loud.
Several clubs for the hard of hear
Eng have installed radio sets and re-
port that they are extremely popular.
at first one club tried using a loud
speaker, but when the apparatus was
adjusted so that all of the members
could hear, the noise was deafening.
1T upset business on three floors of
the building. Ear phones proved more
satisfactory. Each member adjusts
mis- own for volume, and on nights
when phones are in unusual demand,
the head sets are divided by those
who can hear with one phone.
Indirect benefits of radio will be
far more important to the deaf than
che pleasure they get from listening