Hugh Hetherington Hearing Aid Museum
Hugh Hetherington Hearing Aid Museum

The Hearing Aid Museum

Hearing Aids of all types—Ear Trumpets, Carbon Hearing Aids, Vacuum Tube Hearing Aids, Transistor Hearing Aids, Body Hearing Aids, Eyeglass Hearing Aids and much more!

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Click on the "General Information" button (top button above) for an overview and general information on this category of hearing aid.

 

Hearing Testing Equipment

Galton Whistle

The Galton whistle, invented by Sir Frances Galton (1822-1911), was one of the earliest devices used in testing hearing.

It was used in the first quarter of the 20th century, but was later abandoned when better instruments were introduced, including the audiometer.

The Galton whistle can be adjusted to produce very high frequency sounds between 5000 Hz and 42,000 Hz.
 

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You adjust the frequency by moving a slider through a scale of 0 to 16  (right side) with 16 being the lowest frequency, i. e. 5000 Hz. (Click on the picture on the right to enlarge it to see this detail better.)

Because it could produce high-frequency sounds, the Galton whistle was instrumental in discovering presbycusis, the gradual loss of high frequency hearing due to aging.

The instruments pictured here were made by Hawksley & Sons, hearing trumpet manufacturers of London, England.

The white unit with the ivory face plate (top 2 pictures) is used by blowing through a small mouthpiece on the left and adjusting the slider on the right. It produces a sustained note according to the frequency set on the slider.

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The black unit (3rd & 4th pictures) comes with a rubber bulb that attaches to the left and is puffed to produce short sounds. It is interesting that you can’t get the same sustained effect with this unit by blowing into the device that you can with the white unit. Thus these two Galton whistles serve slightly different purposes in hearing testing.

 

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The rubber bulb comes off for storage.

 

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A view of the Galton Whistle (blow model) in its original box. Note that the slider comes out for storage.

 

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A view of the Galton Whistle (puff model) in its original box.

 

 


 

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