Science: Earless Hearing

Waggish professors in elementary physics never fail to put to their classes such a question as: “If a stone deaf man, alone on the moon, should shoot off a cannon, would there be any sound?” Ensnared students readily answer yes; should answer no.

Last fortnight the Medical Association of Vienna sat in their chambers, listened to Professor Stephan Jellinek, electropathologist, and Theodore Scheiber, electrical engineer, tell how an apparatus invented by them might make the answer yes. Their invention replaces normal acoustic hearing with electrical hearing, not dependent upon the functions of the outer or middle ear.

The apparatus demonstrated consisted of a microphone, similar to a telephone transmitter. In this, sound waves (in the air) were transformed into electrical impulses. These currents were intensified with a battery and discharged into the body. Seeking the path of least resistance the currents probably passed through blood vessels. Arriving at the organ of Corti (one of the essential organs of hearing) in the inner ear the electrical impulses apparently stimulated the auditory nerve (which carries sound impressions to the brain), gave the sensation of sound.

Professor Jellinek’s apparatus was bulky, awkward, dangerous. It was necessary to send fairly powerful currents through the body to guarantee success. His prediction: that with the basic problem once solved he would soon simplify his device, make it safe.

The human ear is a crude mechanism. It confines true sound perception within the bounds of eight octaves. Outside of the limits (with most individuals) of 40 vibrations per sec. and 38,000 per sec. is audible to humankind. Should the Jellinek device succeed, humans could hear an infinite range, would not have their orchestra limits the piccolo flute and the double bass.