Practical Aids for the Deaf

1916

Almost any pains are worth taking if by their means the senses of sight and hearing may be preserved; but sometimes, in spite of all that can be done, deafness goes on to the chronic form. In that case no treatment has been discovered that will cure it, especially if it is the kind that is associated with atrophy of the internal parts of the ear. It is of course true that atrophy, or wasting, of any part of the body means loss of function. If you had an atrophied hand or foot, you could see for yourself that it was useless. But the internal ear is hidden from us, and so some of us go on hoping against hope that a miracle will he worked in our own case and that some doctor somewhere will be able to raise the dead.

In that way a great deal of time is lost and a great deal of suffering caused. Chronic and incurable deafness is a cross that must be embraced if we would not be crushed beneath it. The first thing to do is to accept the inevitable with all the cheerfulness we can command; the next thing is to put away every bit of foolish, self-consciousness and false shame about the affection, and the third thing is to get as quickly as possible one of the many excellent contrivances that have been invented to help deaf people. In all our large cities, at the shops of the best opticians, you can find cases filled with these contrivances. The rules about permitting people to take them out on trial are usually very fair. Ten days' use of any one of these will show you whether it will help you or not.

A very useful form of appliance is the electrical apparatus in connection with its own battery. It is a bother, no doubt, to carry it about and manipulate it, but not hearing at all is a greater bother. That is undoubtedly the strongest crutch for the deaf; and its makers assert that it helps to train the ear back to the recognition of human speech. For partial deafness there are smaller and simpler devices, and for those who have accepted deafness as a fact beyond any curative measures, and who still have their own teeth for bone conduction of sound, the audiphone (sometimes called the dentiphone), a black gutta-percha fan held between the front teeth, is often the greatest help. It also possesses the advantage of costing only a few dollars.

—The Fryeburg Post, Fryeburg, Maine, Sept. 26, 1916, p. 4.

The Fabulous Leonard "Foodarama" Refrigerator

Read this doc on Scribd: The Fabulous Leonard "Foodarama" Refrigerator

Refrigerator advertisement recreated, combining a color postcard photograph and an old newspaper ad. The original ad is from 1955.

Motor-Drive Egg Beater

A small electric motor, which had become unfit for shop work, was used by one of the mechanics in his home kitchen, where it rendered good service in beating eggs, whipping cream, and even churning butter. He screwed it to the kitchen wall, with the drive shaft in a vertical position, and as this adjustment threw all the weight of the armature onto the lower thrust bearing, he placed two mica washers between the bearing and the shoulder of the armature. The power was transmitted to the egg beater by means of a collar, pinned permanently to the lower end of the shaft, and the top of the egg beater was thrust into the collar and held firmly with a thumbscrew, so that it revolved with the shaft. The beater was made from a piece of fairly coarse iron wire, twisted into spirals at its lower end, where it entered the dish or pan containing the eggs. To prevent the weight of the thumbscrew from causing the shaft to turn unevenly, a small lump of solder was used as a counterweight on the collar, opposite the screw. Several wire beaters were made and twisted into different shapes, so as to adapt the machine to the nature of the work which was to be done.

Mirror Bait for Raccoon Trap
To catch a raccoon without using edible bait, use a steel trap of medium size, with a mirror, or piece of tin foil, laid flat on the bait pan and secured in position with solder or wire. Set the trap, in water if possible, by some creek, or in some gully, where the tracks of a raccoon have been found. He is a very inquisitive animal, and when he sees light reflected from any surface, he is apt to paw it with his foot -- in this case to his own destruction. - J. W. Reynolds, Mason, Ill.

--Popular Mechanics, August 1919