1924: Early Radioear 

The Radioear Corporation started as E.A. Myers and Sons in the early 1920s. It was founded by E.A. Myers, a practicing attorney who started losing his hearing as a young man. As time passed, his impairment worsened, which adversely impacted his attorney practice. He realized he would need to seek help, or retire from his business. Because Myers did a considerable amount of legal work for manufacterers, he became interested in the manufacturing and production of hearing aid devices. He started to experiment with several hearing devices around the world, but none of them helped. 

 

Myers sought relief from his hearing impairment and started work to develop a hearing aid using radio tubes for amplification, inspired by his watching the development of the radio tube. His first working device weighed 135 pounds. He placed one in his office and one in his home. Soon, he was able to get back to work in the same capacity as before.

 

At this time, Myers had no intention of producing hearing aids commercially. However, more and more of the deaf community, such as his old lip-reading teacher and former business partners with hearing impairment, requested that he build one for them as well. Eventually, the superintendent of the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf came to his office to see the instrument. This led to Myers’ demonstrations of his device in nearly every state and public school for the deaf.

 

Myers and his sons were catapulted into the hearing aid business, installing hearing aid sets in schools for the deaf, churches, theaters, and lecture rooms across the country.