In the first century B.C., Greek physician Archigenes('Αρχιγενης) tried to cure certain hearing disorders by blasting loud noises through a tube. It was thought that fluids from the brain would build up in the ears (almost true).
The Greek physician Galen of Pargamon applied liquids that would dissolve thick fluids while administering medications that would cause patients to lose water from their bodies. Today when know that fluids can collect in the ear for many reasons, but most commonly due to infections, allergies, or impaired drainage.
Ear trumpets were first used by sailors to communicate over long distances, then in the 17th century, they became common assistive devices for the hearing impaired.
Inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell became interested in sound and sound amplification at an early age because of his speech instructor father (invented 'Visible Speech') and hearing-impaired mother (a talented painter and apparently pianist!). Alexander himself went on to become a teacher of the deaf and married a deaf woman.He attributes his breakthrough in the design of the telephone as being due to a mistake he had made when trying to decode research article written in German - he mistakenly believed the researchers had been able to transmit vowel sounds over a wire. He would later recall : "If I had been able to read German, I might never have begun my experiments in electricity!"
Bells' tips to young would-be inventors: "Leave the beaten track occasionally and dive into the woods. Every time you do so you will be certain to find something that you have never seen before. Follow it up, explore all around it, and before you know it, you will have something worth thinking about to occupy your mind."
Do you need to review your anatomy of the middle and inner ear? If so, check out this Interactive Ear site. Ear bones are small!
Could you be a surgeon who operates on the ear? If so, take a look at this Ear Movie that shows how a tendon from a muscle behind the ear can be used to make a new tympanic membrane or "ear drum." It's a little amazing that it works as well as it does...Would you like to have been the first person who had this surgery? 
Today research scientists are able to study the cellular and molecular basis of hearing. Using the scanning electron microscope, researchers can look and delicate structures that make up the hair cells (convert sound waves into electrical signals). 
The ear hears when sound comes into the ear canal, vibrates the tympanic membrane, moves the three ear bones, which in turn pass the vibrating signal to the cochlea where a fluid waves activates hair cells. Bioengineers have made cochlear implants that can allow some deaf people to hear by stimulating the auditory nerves.
Some deaf communities have asked whether cochlear implants should be given to all people, though, because of concern that this innovation could eliminate deaf culture.
Today, neuroscientists and audiologists are also using computer-based training programs to improve hearing by "training the brain" while other groups are trying silicon chips and micromachining to design more sensitive and accurate artificial ears.
References:
Ancient Greek Physician Stamp
Biography of Alexander Graham Bell
History Hearing Disorders
Ear Trumpets
Visible Speech
Alexander Graham Bell at American Memory
How the Ear Works
Alexander Graham Bell
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