Acousticon A-152 (International) Vacuum Tube Hearing Aid
The Acousticon A-152 (International) hearing aid was produced by
Dictograph Products, Inc. of New York in 1950.
It featured a case of gold anodized aluminum with light brown enamel
on the front. The hearing aid measured 3⅛” by 2⅜” by 13/16” and
weighed 5˝ oz. with the batteries installed.
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The Acousticon A-152 showing the volume control/on-off switch (top left corner), the
receiver cord plug (center) and the tone control (top right).
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The Acousticon A-152 was powered by a 1.4 volt
RM-3 "A" cell
and a 22˝ volt
505E
"B" battery. |
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Rear view of the Acousticon A-152. |
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This Acousticon A-152 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. |
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Right side view of the Acousticon A-152 showing the two holes where you could plug in either a "Radion" radio
receiver (see below) or an external microphone (see bottom 2 pictures). |
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The Acousticon A-152 with the Radion attached to the right side of
the hearing aid.
Click here for more information on the Acousticon Radion. |
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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. |
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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.
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(If a larger picture doesn't appear, you may have to
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