THE HUMAN EAR.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 18024, 20 May 1930, Page 3

THE HUMAN EAR.

AS A TELEPHONE RECEIVER, INVENTION TO AID THE DEAF, That it is possible for the human without the aid of the usual mechanical transformer, to “hear” sound transmitted over an electric wire—in other words, for the ear itself to perform the function of a telephone receiver—was demonstrated to the, Vienna Medical Society. The new apparatus, invented by Professor Stephen Jelliuek, of Vienna University, and .Theodore Scheiber, ■ Vienna municipal electrical engineer, turns sounds by means of a microphone into an electric current, but instead of turning them back into sound waves by a transformer it transmits them direct to the ear. The apparatus is complicated and dangerous because all sounds and the transmitting current must be highly amplified. The discovery opens up the possibility of enabling totally deaf persons to hear conversation and music, provided the hearing nerves are not disabled. Transmission of sound by an electric current seems to prove the theory that the transmission of sensation by the nerves is a form of electric phenomenon. The ear-drum, it is thought, ordinarily behaves like a mechanical receiver and the hearing nerves are like the electric wires connected with a microphone. The ear-drum thus would turn the sound waves Into an electric current which conveyed them over the nerves to the hearing centre of the brain. The new apparatus conveys an electric current, into which sounds have been converted by means of a transmitting microphone, directly to ilie nerves of hearing, which convey them to the brain.