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Deaf Acoustics: Listening Through Hearing Aids with Thomas Edison
1New York University, New York, USA. mmills@nyu.edu.
Abstract:
The history of hearing aids is rife with examples of deaf invention, "sonic skills," and other expertise on the parts of deaf and hard of hearing people-whether they were celebrated figures like Thomas Edison, forgotten deaf scientists and engineers, or lay experts. This article, a contribution to the roundtable from the field of history of science, examines correspondence about hearing aids in the Edison archives to argue that Edison and his deaf interlocutors have much to tell us about deaf acoustics: the innovations or insights offered by deaf and hard of hearing people that have contributed to the suite of scientific approaches to sound (i.e., acoustics) including engineering, architecture, physiology, and psychology.
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