As an adult, Tsiolkovsky noticed an advertisement of the hearing aid in the newspaper. The text of the advertisement stated that the device could restore hearing to almost 100 percent. The scientist ordered the machine, but it didn’t help him. That evening Tsiolkovsky spent a long time working in his workshop, and in the morning came out for breakfast with a shiny tin trumpet. Directing it in the direction of his wife VarvAra, then in the direction of children, he kept repeating: ‘Do not speak loudly, I can hear you very well! ’
The secret of the pipe was simple: any funnel, concentrating the sound, amplifies it.
In order to take advantage of the normal listener, it had to be directed towards the speaker, but the viewer had to look away. Tsiolkovsky felt it was rude, so over time he constructed a special trumpet with a cut out to not only hear, but also see the interlocutor.
Using hearing trumpets, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky communicated with family and friends, but he did not take them to work in school or on the street, probably because of shyness. Only once in his whole life, one of the smallest of his hearing aids was taken with him to Moscow. Without telling the scientist, but with the permission of his wife Tsiolkovsky’s companion took it to the 75th anniversary celebration of the scientist. This pipe was used that day by Tsiolkovsky during his conversations with journalists, engineers and guests.
