IMPROVEMENTS IN ACOUSTIC APPARATUS.”
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Alexander McKeown, of Belfast, in the County
of Antrim, in Ireland, Doctor of Medicine and Master in Surgery, for the Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ACOUSTIC APPARATUS.”
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Alexander McKeown
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th October 1878.
WILLIAM ALEXANDER MCKEOWN, of Belfast, in the County of Antrim, in Ireland,
Doctor of Medicine and Master in Surgery. "IMPROVEMENTS IN ACOUSTIC
APPARATUS."
The object of my said Invention is to aid the imperfect sense of hearing of persons
afflicted with deafness by the use of the mechanical contrivance or apparatus
herein-after mentioned, whereby sound may be collected, intensified, and conveyed
to both ears simultaneously, and the advantage of binaural hearing easily, con-
veniently, and effectively secured.
The mechanical contrivance or apparatus which I employ consists of a conical or
bell-shaped tube for each ear, incorporated in or attached to a chair or other suitable
article of furniture, and having towards the apical or small end a flexible portion or
part furnished with a nozzle that will more or less closely fit into the meatus of
the ear.
Instead of thus employing for each car a single or simple tube such as I have
described, I may use a number of such tubes converging at the apical or smaller ends,
and uniting at or near the flexible portion or part furnished with the nozzle as
above mentioned.

page_text: 28th April 1879.
WILLIAM ALEXANDER MOKEOWN, of Belfast, in the County of Antrim, in that
part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called Ireland, Doctor
of Medicine and Master in Surgery. "IMPROVEMENTS IN ACOUSTIC APPARATUS."
The object of my said Invention is to aid the imperfect sense of hearing of
persons afflicted with deafness by the use of the mechanical contrivance or apparatus
such as is herein-after described, whereby sound can be collected, intensified, and when
required, conveyed to both ears simultaneously, so that the advantage of binaural
hearing may be easily, conveniently, and effectively secured, while considerable
movement of the head in different directions may be effected without subjecting
the ears to any injurious pressure or materially diminishing the bore of the
sound passage.
My improved nechanical contrivance or apparatus is constructed in a manner
which I will now explain. As its forms and details may, as will be understood, be
easily varied to suit the requirements of various persons, I will begin by describing
that modification which will be found to be most complete and generally useful.
I employ two tapered tubes or sound collectors attached to a chair or other suitable
article of furniture and having each a very large orifice or mouth, and each being
connected at the apical or small end with a flexible portion or part furnished with
a nozzle that will more or less closely fit into the meatus of the car.
The orifice or mouth of the tube may be circular or oval in shape, and may be
furnished with an expanding lip or curved flange. The taper of the tube should be
considerable, in order to diminish the bore sufficiently to permit a nozzle to be used
which will fit the meatus of the ear.
The inner surface of the tube, including both the fixed or firm and the flexible
part should be smooth, all rough joints and connections by which the progress of
sound would be impeded being carefully avoided.
The mouth and other fixed or rigid portions of the tube are constructed of metal
or other suitable stiff material.
For the flexible portion of the tube I employ thin clastic vulcanized india-rubber,
moulded preferably while in the state termed "dough," with thick rings at intervals
on its outer surface or having ribs or other stiffening projections or a spiral coil of
the same material formed or laid on or fixed round it externally. Instead of
using india-rubber tubes so made, other flexible tubes made of other materials
may be employed. This flexible portion is attached at its wider extremity to the
firm or rigid portion of the tube which I have termed the sound collector, and at
the smaller extremity it carries a nozzle as before mentioned which is constructed of
wood, ivory, bone, ebonite, or vulcanite, or other similar material and made of
suitable size and form to fit conveniently into the ear.
I do not confine myself however to the use of the materials I have already enu-
merated, and the size and contour of parts of the apparatus may, as is obvious, be
modified so as to suit the requirements or the degree of deafness of the person
requiring to employ same.
The fixed or rigid portion of the tube I have described may be incorporated in
the arm of a chair so as 'to leave only the orifice or mouth exposed. In some
cases the whole tube may be employed as an attachment merely and be removeable
at pleasure. For this purpose I fix a spud or pin on the outside of the fixed or
rigid portion of the tube and connect the said spud or pin by means of a ball-and-
socket joint with a spindle or arm passing through a slot or perforation in an
adjustable socket which travels on a bar and may be fixed in position to suit the

page_text: requirements or convenience of the person employing the apparatus. The bar is
supported by brackets which may be fixed upon or attached to a chair, couch, table,
reading stand, writing desk, or other suitable article of furniture. The spindle or
arm connected with the spud or pin on the tube is held in the slot or perforation
when arranged in the desired position, by means of a thumbscrew; or it may be
furnished with a rack and actuated by means of a pinion attached to the adjustable
socket which travels on the bar before mentioned. This socket may also be made
fast to the bar by means of a thumbscrew or bolt.
"
According to another arrangement I suspend the fixed or rigid parts of the tubes
from elevated brackets hinged to the frame of a chair and extending horizontally
forward on each side. Each of these brackets may be slotted to carry a travelling
socket having a threaded perforation to receive a threaded spindle attached
at the opposite extremity by a ball-and-socket joint to the spud or pin.
Besides the simple tube I have already described I also employ a compound or
multiple tube consisting of several conical rigid tubes of smaller dimensions placed
together and converging towards the apical end where they are combined and
become a single tube having a flexible extension constructed in the manner I have
stated, and furnished with a nozzle as before mentioned. Or I employ a tube having
a closed hemispherical end or apex, whence the sound would be conveyed by a
smaller tapered tube, passing in a curve through the side of the larger tube, and
having a flexible extension and nozzle such as I have described.
And in order that the Invention may be more fully understood I shall now refer
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, the same letters of reference indicating
throughout all the Figures the same or corresponding parts of the contrivance or
apparatus employed by me.
Fig. I. is a chair having the tubes compressed at each side or vertically, and
their orifices raised upon or near to the level of the ears of the person employing
them.
Fig. II. is a chair having the tubes placed in such a position as to represent
the arms of a chair.
Fig. III. represents a compound or multiple tube.
Figs. IV., V., and VI. represent various modifications of tubes. is the firm or
rigid portion of the tube; b is its flexible portion, with the rings or spiral coil
before described; c is the nozzle fitted to the meatus of the car; d is the ball-and-
socket joint connecting the spud or pin on the firm or rigid portion of the tube with
the spindle or arm e; f, is the slotted or perforated part of the adjustable socket g,
through which the spindle or arme passes, and in which it is held by a thumb-
screw, and h is the bar supported by the brackets i, i, on which the adjustable
socket g travels.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I would have it to be understood that I do not claim as of
my Invention or the exclusive use of conical or bell-shaped tubes, or of tubes of any
other shape or kind except when the same are constructed specially and employed as
herein described, nor do I claim the use of chairs, tables, stands, desks, ball-and-
socket joints, adjustable or travelling sockets, spindles, bars, brackets, thumbscrews,
racks, and pinions, or of any of the separate mechanical parts which form the acoustic
apparatus used by me, but I claim,-
First. The respective combinations of parts forming my improved acoustic
apparatus constructed substantially as described and illustrated in Figures I.
and II.
Secondly. The use of binaural apparatus, constructed and employed substantially
as herein-before described.
Thirdly. The manufacture and use for acoustic purposes in the manner herein
referred to of tubes constructed with rigid and flexible parts, substantially as herein-
before described and illustrated in Figures III., IV., V., and VI.
Fourthly. The construction and use of a flexible tube made of vulcanized india-

page_text: described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Alexander McKeown, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine.