Hearing Aid
notes: label: Description
content: Hugo Lieber (1868-1936) was a German chemist who moved to New York in 1891, became interested in hearing problems in 1922, established the Sonotone Corp. in 1930, and introduced the first Sonotone hearing aid in 1932. As Waldemar Kaemffert explained in the New York Times: “Instead of forcing intensified sound waves through the impaired ear by a modified telephone, thus distorting sound and imposing a strain on the deaf hearer, Dr. Lieber’s oscillator detours the sound around the outer ear directly to the internal hearing organs. Sounds so heard are not distorted. The device makes use of the principle that sound vibrations are conveyed with greater ease through certain solids, including human bones, than through the air.” The Sonotone Corp. donated this Model 531A hearing aid to the Smithsonian in 1944. An inscription reads "SONOTONE / U.S.PAT. 1.679.532 PAT. / PENDING. MADE IN U.S.A. / M33469." The referenced patent was issued to Frederick William Kranz (1887-1979), a physicist with a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, who served for many years as a vice-president of Sonotone.
label: Description
content: Ref: Walter Kaemffert, “This Week in Science,” <i>New York Times</i> (Nov. 6, 1932), p. XX4.
label: Description
content: “Dr. Lieber is Dead; Device Aided Deaf,” <i>New York Times</i> (Jan. 4, 1936), p. 15.
label: Description
content: Frederick William Kranz, “Apparatus for Aiding Hearing,” U.S. Patent 1,679,532 (Aug. 7, 1928).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States
label: Associated Place
content: United States: New York, New York City
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Medicine
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Sonotone Corporation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MG.M-05259
label: accession number
content: 168424
label: catalog number
content: M-05259
label: serial number
content: #M533469
label: model number
content: 531A
label: accession number
content: 168424
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Hearing Aid
label: Object Name
content: hearing aid
label: Other Terms
content: Hearing Aid; Prostheses
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: rubber (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: mother-of-pearl(?) (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: black (overall color)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2.5 cm x 12.6 cm x 6.5 cm; 31/32 in x 4 31/32 in x 2 9/16 in
label: Measurements
content: overall, as stored: 2 3/4 in x 7 1/2 in x 7 1/2 in; 6.985 cm x 19.05 cm x 19.05 cm