Hugh Hetherington Hearing Aid Museum
Hugh Hetherington Hearing Aid Museum

The Hearing Aid Museum

Hearing Aids of all types—Ear Trumpets, Carbon Hearing Aids, Vacuum Tube Hearing Aids, Transistor Hearing Aids, Body Hearing Aids, Eyeglass Hearing Aids and much more!

Home Enter the Museum About Us Contact Us

FREESubscriptionto:
Hearing Loss Help
The premier e-zine for people with hearing loss

Your email address
will never be
rented, traded or sold!

Your First Name:
Your E-mail:
Search this site:

 Results per
 page

 all words
 any words


Click on the "General Information" button (top button above) for an overview and general information on this category of hearing aid.

 

Vacuum Tube Hearing Aids: 1921-1953

Acousticon A-150 (International) Vacuum Tube Hearing Aid

The Acousticon A-150 (International) hearing aid was produced by Dictograph Products, Inc. of New York in 1949.

It featured a case of gold anodized aluminum. The hearing aid measured 3⅛” by 2⅜” by 13/16” and weighed 5¼ oz. with the batteries installed.

Click picture for larger view

 

Back Next

 
The Acousticon A-150 showing the volume control/on-off switch (top left corner), the receiver cord plug (center) and the tone control (top right).


Click picture for larger view

 
Rear view of the Acousticon A-150.

 

Click picture for larger view

 
This Acousticon A-150 came with a bone conduction transducer, rather than an air conduction receiver. A head band (not shown) held the transducer tight to the bone behind the ear which allowed the wearer to hear via bone conduction.

 

 

Click picture for larger view

 
The Acousticon A-150 was powered by a 1½ volt 1015E "A" cell (same size as modern AA batteries) and a 15 volt  No. 411E "B" battery).

 

Click picture for larger view

 

Right side view of the Acousticon A-150 showing the plugs (red dots) that cover the holes where you could plug in either a "Radion" radio receiver (see below) or an external microphone (see bottom 2 pictures).

 

Click picture for larger view

 
The Acousticon A-150 with the Radion attached to the right side of the hearing aid. Click here for more information on the Acousticon Radion.

 

Click picture for larger view

 

Another most interesting feature of the Acousticon A-150 (and also the A-90, A-100, A-152) was that instead of plugging in the Radio, you could also plug in an external microphone that looked just like a wrist watch. This allowed you to keep the body aid hidden--because the sound would then be picked up by the microphone hidden in the watch-like casing. A cord ran up the sleeve to the hearing aid in an inside pocket.

Here is an ad (bottom left corner) for this "Wrist-Ear" external microphone published in the Sunday Morning edition of The Democrat and Leader newspaper of Davenport, Iowa on July 17, 1949.

Click picture for larger view

 

 

Here is a close-up of this ad so you can read it easier.

Here is a link to a photo of the actual "Wrist Ear" in the Kenneth W. Berger Hearing Aid Museum.


 

Click picture for larger view

 

(If a larger picture doesn't appear, you may have to turn your pop-up blocker off)