Radioear Model 840 “Lady America" Hearing Aid
The Radioear Model 840 "Lady America" hearing aid, manufactured by Radioear
Corporation of Pennsylvania in 1956 is an unusual barrette or clip-on
body-worn style of hearing aid.
The hearing aid measured 2⅜" x 1⅜" x ½" thick. It weighed
1.3 oz.(38 g)
without the battery.
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The Radioear Model 840 (Lady America) came in two colors—dark brown (left)
and tan (right). These two colors of aids actually served different
purposes. The tan version was meant to be exactly what you see—a
body-worn hearing aid. However, the brown "Lady America" was designed
to be a dual function hearing aid—either a stand alone body-worn aid
like the tan version, or be incorporated into a unique eyeglass hearing
aid version.
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The brown version of the Radioear Model 840 (Lady America) hearing aid
was identical to the tan version except for one thing—the pocket-clip
trim. Note that on the trim this hearing aid is billed as the "Lady
America"
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On the tan version the pocket clip is billed as the Model 840, or as
Radioear typically wrote it out, the "Eight Forty".
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Here's a bit of history leading to the development of the "Lady America"
version. Radioear had hired Peter Muller-Munk (1904-1967), a young German
silversmith, formerly of Tiffany & Co. and now an industrial designer,
to come up with a modern design for eyeglass hearing aids. (Radioear was
one of Peter's early clients.)
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The result of Muller-Munk's efforts was the distinctive and unique
Radioear Model 840 "Lady America" eyeglass hearing aid (right) and the Model 40
"Lady America" body-worn hearing aid (left). Read more about the
Radioear Model
840 "Lady America" eyeglass style hearing aid in the eyeglass
section of the Museum.
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The Radioear Model 40 "Lady America" hearing aid
eyeglasses had all the electronics in modules—one behind each ear.
These same two modules could be
unplugged from the end of each temple-piece and plugged into each other
to become a barrette or body-worn hearing aid. (As far as I know, this
is the
only hearing aid to be able to do this.)
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In order to convert from the eyeglass version to the body-worn version,
all you needed was the piece of trim/pocket-clip with "Lady
America" stamped on it (left).
The two modules were identical whether used in the eyeglass version or
the body-worn (or barrette) version. The upper module is the "receiver" module and
the lower one is the "microphone" module.
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To put the body-worn version of the Radioear Model 840 (Lady America)
together you first pushed the trim piece onto the bottom of the
"receiver" module.
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The trim piece of the Radioear Model 840 (Lady America) shown in place.
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Then all you had to do was plug the "microphone" module through the
holes in the trim piece and into the "receiver" module jacks.
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You had to plug the two modules together correctly. Note the two white
dots—one on each module. The dot on the "microphone" module (left) is to
the right of the right pin and the dot on the "receiver" module (right)
is to the left of the left pin. You plugged the two modules together
such that both dots "touched" each other.
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Finally, you plugged in a 24" (61cm) receiver cord (the one for the
eyeglasses was only 3" (7.5 cm) long) and voila, you now had the Radioear Model 840
"Lady America" body-worn hearing aid. Reversing the process, you could
switch back to the eyeglass version.
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The tan version of the Radioear Model 840 "Lady America" went
together exactly the same as the dark brown version—but with the
different trim/pocket clip piece.
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View of the tan-colored Radioear Model 840 "Lady America" put together,
but with a longer receiver cord so it could be worn in a pocket.
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Side and rear view of the Radioear Model 840 "Lady America"
hearing aid showing the plain back except for the band of trim hiding
the join between the two modules.
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View of the "receiver" module of the Radioear Model 840 "Lady America"
hearing aid showing the empty battery compartment.
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View of the "receiver" module of the Radioear Model 840 "Lady America"
hearing aid showing the opened battery compartment with a
No. 625 battery in it.
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View of the "receiver" module of the Radioear Model 840 "Lady America"
hearing aid showing the battery compartment door half closed.
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View of the "receiver" module of the Radioear Model 840 "Lady America"
hearing aid showing the battery compartment door completely shut (bottom
right). When completely shut, the battery door is hard to find.
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Close-up view of the bottom of the "microphone" module of the Radioear
Model 840 "Lady America" hearing aid showing the rectangular microphone
grill. The "microphone" module measured 1 1/16" x 1⅜" x ½" (2.7 x 3.4
x 1.2 cm). It was ¼" shorter than the "receiver" module.
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View of the bottom of the "microphone" module of the tan Radioear Model
840 "Lady America" hearing aid also showing the rectangular microphone
grill.
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View of the Radioear Model 840 "Lady America" hearing aid showing the
volume control wheel/on-off switch (top left corner of the hearing aid)
and below it the receiver cord plug and the two-hole receiver cord jack
on the side of the aid. Note that this hearing aid had no other
controls apart from the volume control. It had no tone control or
telecoil switch, for example.
The receiver" module measured 1 5/16" x 1⅜" x
½" (3.3 x 3.4 x 1.2 cm).
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View of the tan version of the Radioear Model 840 "Lady America" hearing aid
showing the volume control wheel/on-off switch (top left corner of the
hearing aid) and below it the two-hole receiver cord jack on the side of
the aid. Note the white dot above the upper hole in both this picture
and the one above. This is to line up the black dot on the plug to
preserve correct polarity.
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View of the Radioear Model 840 "Lady America" hearing aid showing the
receiver cord plugged into the receiver cord jack. If you look
closely, you can see the black dot on the top of the plug lines up with
the white dot on the body of the hearing aid showing it is being plugged
in the right way.
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Side view of the receiver showing the receiver cord plug and receiver
jack of the Radioear Model 840 "Lady America" hearing aid.
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Top view of the the receiver of the Radioear Model 840 "Lady America"
hearing aid showing the receiver cord plugged in.
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Side view of the of the receiver and hard plastic ear mold of the
Radioear Model 840 "Lady America" hearing aid here shown snapped
together.
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View of the receiver and hard plastic ear mold of the Radioear Model 840
"Lady America" hearing aid. The ear mold snapped onto the nubbin in the
center of the receiver.
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Close-up view of the plug end of the "receiver" module of the Radioear
Model 840 "Lady America" hearing aid showing the name (Radioear) and
below it the serial number (5N74). Note the white dot to the left of
the right jack—necessary for correct orientation of plugs.
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Close-up view of the plug end of the "receiver" module of the tan
Radioear Model 840 "Lady America" hearing aid showing the name
(Radioear) and below it the serial number (5L10).
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The Radioear Model 840 "Lady America" hearing aid in its original case.
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The Radioear logo on the inside of the lid of the original case
of the Radioear Model 840 "Lady America" hearing aid.
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The original case of the Radioear Model 840 "Lady America" hearing aid. The case
measured 4⅜" x 3 5/16" x 1¼" (11.3 x 8.5 x 3.2 cm).
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