One would be hard pressed to find anyone who has not heard of Alexander Graham Bell or Thomas Edison. The two American inventors changed the world through their inventions. Stuffed in between these two giants was Miller Reese Hutchison (1876–1944), who was heavily influenced by Bell and would later become Edison’s “right-hand man.”
Hutchison was born in Montrose, Alabama, and gravitated to the world of science and invention. He attended Spring Hill College, Marion Military Institute, and eventually Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama (later named Auburn University), where he graduated in 1897 with a doctorate in electrical engineering.
A Successful Invention
The same year that Hutchison was born, Bell had demonstrated his invention of the telephone, which paved the way for other inventors to manipulate sound through electricity, magnetism, and transmission. The young inventor began amplifying sound through carbon transmitters and electric signals. In 1895, Hutchison successfully created the first hearing aid called Akoulathon (later renamed Acousticon). As it was the first, the hearing aid looked primitive compared to later versions and appeared more like a small telephone box than a hearing aid. The breakthrough was nonetheless substantial. In fact, it did indeed help Gould with his hearing.
A Royal Hearing
Once the war ended, Hutchison went back to marketing his hearing device. He soon ventured across the Atlantic Ocean to promote it in Europe. During one of his exhibits, he was asked to demonstrate what his hearing aid could do in the presence of royalty.Alexandra of Denmark suffered from otosclerosis, which caused hearing loss due to abnormal bone growth in the middle ear. Alexandra was not just from Denmark, she was the wife of Prince Edward, the future King of Great Britain. As the years progressed, the future queen began isolating herself socially and spending most of her time strictly with her children. Her deafness was a cause of embarrassment, but when she learned of Hutchison’s invention, she requested he conduct a personal demonstration. When she used his hearing aid, she could hardly contain her excitement. She was now able to hear clearly.
As a sign of her appreciation, she presented the young inventor with two coronation medals, a portrait of herself with a jewel-encrusted frame, and a large stipend.
Hutchison continued inventing and patenting his work. For several years, he was Edison’s chief engineer at his laboratory in West Orange, New Jersey. By the end of his life, Hutchison had approximately 1,000 patents and developed many inventions. One of his inventions was the loud Klaxon car horn that blared the familiar “ah-ooh-gah!” sound. Mark Twain once joked that “Hutchison invented the Klaxon horn to deafen people so they would have to buy Acousticons.”
