Acousticon A-140 (Constellation) Vacuum Tube Hearing Aid The Acousticon A-140 (Constellation) hearing aid was produced by Dictograph Products, Inc. of New York in 1948. It featured a case of gold anodized aluminum over a dark brown plastic chassis. The hearing aid measured 2¾” by 2 3/16” by ⅞” (7.0 x 6.0 x 2.2 cm). It weighed 5.3 oz. (152 g) without the batteries. |  | Click picture for larger view | | |   | | | |
| The Acousticon A-140 looked for all the world like the Acousticon A-120 with its bottom cut off. This is because it was a 2-piece hearing aid—the batteries were external to the hearing aid.
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| Close up rear view of the Acousticon A-140 showing the make (Acousticon) and model (A-140) and very faintly, the Acousticon logo above it in the worn spot.
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| Bottom view of the Acousticon A-140 showing the three-pin battery plug and jack.
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| Bottom view of the Acousticon A-140 showing the battery cable plug. It had three pins with unequal spacing so it could only be plugged in the correct way.
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| Bottom view of the Acousticon A-140 showing the battery cables plugged in.
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| Top view of the Acousticon A-140 showing the top of the pocket clip. The two screws allow you to have the clip over the microphone (as in the above picture) or on the back. The volume control/on-off switch is on the right (almost invisible it blends in so well). The two holes in the middle are the jacks for the receiver or bone conduction cord.
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Right-side view of the Acousticon A-140. Note the two red plugs that remove to expose the holes for the pins of the Radion to attach/connect to. When the Acousticon Radion radio tuner was plugged in, it turned this hearing aid into a personal AM radio for the user.
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| Left-side view of the Acousticon A-140.
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| Close-up view of the left side of the Acousticon A-140 showing the 4 position tone control. The serial number (2B816) is to the right of the tone control. |  | Click picture for larger view | | | |
| The Acousticon A-140 used external batteries. The 3-pronged plug (left) was for the "B" battery and the two-pronged plug (right) was for the "A" battery.
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| The Acousticon A-140 used external batteries such as this Eveready 425-P Mini-Max 22½ volt "B" battery (center) and this Sonotone X800 1½ volt "A" battery (right).
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| Top view of the Acousticon A-140 showing the bone-conduction cord plugged into the jack. This aid had a relatively large plug.
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| The bone conduction cord for the Acousticon A-140 had a tag attached that reads in part, "For maximum life leave cord attached to transmitter and receiver." |  | Click picture for larger view | | | |
| This Acousticon A-140 hearing aid came with a bone-conduction transducer rather than an acoustic receiver. The transducer plugged into the receiver jack on the top of the aid. A special thanks to Marilyn Dempsey of Joplin, MO for donating her grandfather's Acousticon A-140 hearing aid to the Museum.
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