"Hearing Aids and Miniaturization, 1880-1954"

Time: 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.

Place: 6th Floor Conference Room, Chemical Heritage Foundation

Information: 215-873-8289 or bbl@chemheritage.org

Subminiature vacuum tubes originated in the hearing-aid industry; the button battery, the transistor, and the integrated circuit made their first commercial appearances there. Yet power, portability, and invisibility were central concerns for hearing-aid users before electronics. This talk will survey the long history of miniaturization, focusing on the roles deaf and hard-of-hearing people played in component engineering as early adopters, inventors, retailers, and manufacturers.

Mara Mills is an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a master’s degree in biology and a Ph.D. in the history of science from Harvard University. Mills is working on a manuscript about deafness, telephone engineering, and the emergence of information theory and cybernetics.