Beltone Harmony Vacuum Tube Hearing Aid
The Beltone Harmony vacuum tube one-piece hearing
aid was produced by the Beltone Electronics Corp. of Chicago, IL.
The Harmony was Beltone's second one-piece vacuum tube hearing aid. It came
out
in 1946, two years after their Monopac.
The overall dimensions
are 4¼” by 2¾” by 7/8”. It weighed 5 oz. without the batteries.
The Harmony came with either a magnetic or a crystal receiver.
The crystal receiver is shown in the top picture. |
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Top view of the Beltone Harmony showing the on-off switch/3 position (1,
2 & 3 dots) tone control (left), receiver cord jack (center) and volume
control (far right).
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The picture at the right shows the opened battery with the 1.4 Volt (RM-4) mercury cell for the A battery,
and the space for the larger 30 Volt (type 413) B battery. It was the
smallest 30 volt "B" battery on the market at that time.
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Note the green dot on the back of the case at the right, diagonally above
the
screw hole. A green dot in this position indicated the aid was set up
for a crystal receiver. You can see a corresponding indentation on the
left. When this indentation was painted
green, it indicated the aid was designed to use the magnetic receiver. |
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The two receivers are shown here for comparison. The magnetic
receiver is on the left and the crystal receiver is on the right.
A magnetic receiver is basically a tiny loudspeaker.
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This is the Beltone "Phantomold," or what
is referred to as a "Link." It was often used so that the
rather large button receiver did not show in the ear. The plastic tubing
connected the receiver through a tube up to an ear mold. The button receiver was
hidden under the person’s collar.
These links are still used by broadcasters to hide
the in-ear device.
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A view of the Beltone Harmony in its original box. |
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A view of the Beltone Harmony case. |
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The manual that came with the Beltone Harmony. If you are interested,
you can read this manual. |
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Here is the receipt for the original purchase of this Beltone Harmony
hearing aid. It cost $160.00 in 1947 when it was sold.
Note that the receipt shows the model as "magnetic". This particular
hearing aid used a magnetic receiver rather than a crystal receiver.
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(If a larger picture doesn't appear, you may have to
turn your pop-up blocker off)
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