Monaural Stethoscopes with Unusual Ear Pieces
Unusual wood stethoscope with a large bell ear piece, c. 1850. The typical chest end is at the top of the photo
Cedar stethoscope with curved, protruding ear piece made of gutta percha, which was intended to create a better fit in the ear, c. 1860.
Hughes monaural stethoscope, c. 1890
Hughes monaural stethoscope, c. 1880
Gutta-percha model on the right is a simple stethoscope, with an ear plug end, c. 1880
Hecker stethoscope c. 1860 made of wood with a horn extension to attach a flexible tube with a horn earpiece for student teaching.
This stethoscope belonged to Dr. Gustav Lowenstein from Frankfurt, Germany. Dr. Lowenstein fled Germany to Austria in 1933 and then emigrated with his family to America in 1935. The stethoscope was obtained in 2006 from his 78-year-old physician son who said that the stethoscope originally belonged to his grandfather, who was also a physician. This cedar wood stethoscope is a Hosford's type, with a large bell earpiece designed to cover the ear to exclude external sounds, c. 1900.
Stethoscope with a brass rim at the ear-end and a brass lined funnel shaped chest-end, c. 1880
A hand carved, funnel shaped stethoscope made from a unique Vermont wood, c. 1860