Hearing aids have been in use for centuries. The first hearing aid was invented in 1500’s. They were made of wood and looked like ears of animals that were known to be good hearers. In 1800, they became more regularly used.

The inventor of the hearing aid was Alexander Graham Bell in the 1880’s. These were called trumpet hearing aids and they were produced on a very small scale in the beginning. They were made of large horns that were worn on the inside and out of the ear (sort of wrapped around it), or they were hidden in the handle of a cane. They did not work so well only raising the hearing level of the user by about 15 decibels.

At the end of the 19th century, they became mass-produced and were large in size. These cost about $400 and were a tabletop model that only the richest people could afford. In the 1920’s electronic ones were developed. These were called vacuum tube hearing aids and were also large and impractical to carry with you. In the 1930’s the hearing aide that resembled what we know today was invented. These contained carbon and magnified a person’s hearing by about 35 decibels. They had separate battery packs that were noisy and would turn off by themselves frequently.

In the 1940’s mercury batteries were invented and these made all the difference in reducing the size of the devices. They were now small enough to be worn on the body. In 1952, transistors were invented that would run off the mercury battery. Since the 1950’s they have become increasingly smaller.

Today new digital hearing aids allow the user to adjust the volume and come in a in the ear or behind the ear models. They are smaller and more advanced yearly. They still run on a battery that powers the aide itself. They are molded to each individual’s ear and that helps hold the aid in place also. Today there are about 560 million in the world with hearing loss; most of them wear a hearing aid of some sort.