1873-1948

American electrical engineer and inventor who designed an electromagnetic bone-conducting device as an aid for the hearing impaired. Called an Ossiphone, the name recalled a popular diaphragm earpiece trumpet that had been marketed under the name Otophone since 1877. Brown's invention was the first of the electrically amplified bone-conductor type. Brown, who was born in Chicago, invented several devices and was awarded patents in the United States and Great Britain. In 1915 Brown received a patent in the United States for a telephone relay. In 1921 he was awarded a British patent for a carbon hearing aid and three years later a patent for a loudspeaker improvement. The trade name of S. G. Brown Ltd. was Weda, which in 1949 marketed a vacuum-tube, one-piece earphone-type hearing aid.