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The Audiphone
On September 1879, Richard Silas Rhodes (1842-1902), president of a publishing company in Chicago, received a patent for his “Audiphone for the Deaf” his various improvements to the device. (U.S. Patent No. 319,828). Rhodes had conductive hearing…
Webster’s Otaphone, a Patented Hearing Aid
UK patent #7033, dated 17 March 1836, is the earliest British patent for a hearing aid device, granted to the aurist (19th century term for ear specialist) Alphonso William Webster, for his “curious” invention, the Otaphone (sometimes spelled…
Comfort for Invalids
In this advertisement for a variety of what we would now call “wheelchairs” or “lounge chairs,” J. Alderman offers “comfort for invalids” in his newly patented “Imperceptibly Graduating, Mechanical, and…
The Principles of Hydropathy
Hydropathy, or “the water cure” was a common treatment for ailments ranging from depression to gastro-intestinal disorders in the nineteenth-century, as well as a form of recreation. It was especially popular in the mid-nineteenth century. Patients…
Nineteenth-Century Disability: Cultures and Contexts, 2012-2015, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. The project, directed by Karen Bourrier, has been funded by SSHRC and launched with the help of the Research Group for Electronic Textuality and Theory at Western University.
