TO RELIEVE THE DEAF.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 11 October 1901, Page 4

TO RELIEVE THE DEAF.

What Electricity Promises

Some remarkably successful experiments have been made in Now York with a new electrical device for enabling the deaf to hear.

Four thousand deaf mutes are said to have been experimented upon in the presence of American aurists and physicians, the device being like that which a switchboard attendant wears clamped to tho head when engaged in telephone work. Ono of these instruments was worn by each patient, while tho inventor spoke into a tube resembling an ordinary receiver, a wire conductor connecting each person. When the feat mutes heard a sound or a word by means of the instrument, they were told by sign language what it meant, and wtre with much patient effort taught to reproduce it again with their lips. For the deaf a different instrument was used, but ono acting upon tin same primary principle as that used for the instruction of deaf mutes—tho principle of tho intensification of sound waves by means of electrical conductors acting upon a sensitive diaphragm.

For these cases a small dry storage battery, no larger than a pocket flask, is worn under the outer clothing, where its presence would no more be suspected than would that of a well-filled wallet. A wire running down the coat sleeve connects the battery with a small metallic disc as big as a watch. In conversation the speaker holds a similar disc bei ide his lips, while the deaf man holds his to bis ear. The two discs, however, do not need to be connected. Another device in the shppe of a receiver is intended to enable the deaf to listen to the music of a concert in a public hall or to hear the conversation around a dining table or in a private office. This attachment is not much larger than an opera glass.