French Celluloid Conical Ear Trumpet (Ear Horn)
This French-made conical or "pointed dome" ear trumpet is a bit unusual in that
the dome comes to a point, rather than rounded as was much more common.
It was made of "faux tortoiseshell" celluloid and had a ivory-colored
celluloid screw-on
earpiece.
Date of manufacture is unknown, but it was probably somewhere around
1900.
The dome of this ear trumpet is 3¾" high and measures 2⅝" across the open
end. The overall height of this ear trumpet is 4⅛".
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Another side view of the French conical pointed dome ear trumpet. Notice, that in contrast to
all but one of the other "dome" trumpets in the museum, the earpiece of this one
goes over the top of the dome so that you listen on the opposite side of the dome from where
the ear tube comes out of the base. In addition, the ear tube is attached
all along the outside of the dome so it won't break off as easily as it otherwise might.
This earpiece arrangement is quite rare. |
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Bottom and side view of the conical pointed dome ear trumpet. The
ear piece does not stick out very far from the side of the dome making
this ear trumpet harder to seat in your ear canal. (Compare with how far
the German pointed dome ear trumpet earpiece sticks out on the next
page.)
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Bottom view of the French dome showing the ornate celluloid grill. |
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Backlit side view of the French Dome showing both the external (bottom
and left) and internal (center) parts of the ear tube. The way
these domed ear trumpets worked was that the dome had a parabolic shape
so that the sound waves that entered the base of the dome reflected off
the curved sides of the top of the dome right into the large end of the
ear tube making these ear trumpets surprisingly effective.
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