Before the invention of modern hearing aids, ear trumpets made from animal horns were used by people who suffered from hearing loss.
The first firm to begin commercial production of the ear trumpet was established by Fredrick C. Rein in 1800. In 1901, Miller Reese Hutchinson of New York invented the first electrical hearing aid, called the Acousticon. It was a large box containing batteries and electric circuit, which was attached to a telephone receiver.
One of the first manufacturers of the electronically amplified hearing aid was the Siemens Company in 1913. Smaller, modern hearing aids were made practicable by transistors from the 1950s onwards.
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