Acousticon No. 28 Hearing Aid Battery
The Acousticon No. 28, 1˝ and 3 volt battery was very
likely numbered to coincide with the introduction of the Model 28
(Silver Anniversary) carbon hearing aid which came out in 1927.
It weighed 6.6 oz. (188 g), and measured 4"
by 2" by 1" (10.2 x 5.2 x 2.5 cm).
Incidentally, the Acousticon No. 28 battery was identical to the
earlier Acousticon No. 2B battery, except for the "cover" design.
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Close-up view of the label on the front of the Acousticon No. 28 carbon
hearing aid battery. The label reads, "Acousticon Battery 28" and
"Made by Dictograph Products Company Inc. New York, U.S.A."
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Top view of the Acousticon No. 28 hearing aid battery. This battery was rather unusual in that it had push-in
sockets for both 1˝ and 3 volts. The positive terminal (labeled "+" -
left) was larger than the other two, so you couldn't plug things in
backwards, thus preserving the correct polarity.
The negative terminals are labeled -1˝ volts (upper) and -3 volts
(lower).
Presumably, if you didn't need all the power
available, you could plug into the 1˝ volt socket. If you needed more
power, you plugged into the 3 volt
socket and had increased volume. However, there are a couple of
mysteries associated with this battery. First, carbon hearing aids
typically used either 3 volt or 4˝ volts, not 1˝ volts. Second, since
the two cells had to be wired in series (to get the 3 volts), if you
used the 1˝ volt connection, you'd use up the first cell, and would thus
waste the second cell as you could not access it for the second 1˝
volts, and if the first cell was used up, then plugging into the 3 volt
connection would only give you somewhat less than 1˝ volts, not 3 volts.
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