"The Confessionaire" Confessional Hearing Aid "The Confessionaire" confessional hearing aid was an assistive listening device used in the confessional so hard of hearing people could hear the priest. It was produced by the Audio Equipment Co. Inc. of Great Neck, New York probably somewhere around 1955 to 1960. | | Click picture for larger view | | | | |
View of the back of "The Confessionaire". "The Confessionaire" had no on-off switch, so it was always on whenever it was plugged into a standard 117 volt A/C wall socket.
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The lighted instruction panel of "The Confessionaire". Hanging up the receiver didn't do anything electronically like hanging up a phone does. It was just "neater". | | Click picture for larger view | | |
View of "The Confessionaire's" handheld receiver. | | Click picture for larger view | | |
View of the back of "The Confessionaire's" receiver. | | Click picture for larger view | | |
Front view of "The Confessionaire's" receiver. The foam ear pad is missing. | | Click picture for larger view | | |
The microphone faces to the back of "The Confessionaire" (priest's view). | | Click picture for larger view | | |
"The Confessionaire" with the front panel taken off showing the insides. The wing nut (top center) holds the heat shield in place that protects the vacuum tubes. To replace any tubes, you needed to remove the front cover, then the heat shield. | | Click picture for larger view | | |
The electronics of "The Confessionaire". At the top left and right are small lamp bulbs (No. 34s) to illuminate the instruction screen. Between them are the three tubes of the amplifier. They are the 12AU6 (left), 35C5 (center) and 35W4 (right). | | Click picture for larger view | | |
The service instructions of the "The Confessionaire". The volume control, adjusted by screwdriver, is at the top center. This was accessed by pulling out the plug in the case (shown in the center of the top picture. Note that there were two sets of screws at the bottom so two different earphones could be used at the same time. | | Click picture for larger view | | |
Nameplate on the front of "The Confessionaire".
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