A hometown friend's deafness inspired Miller Reese Hutchison to design a battery-powered hearing aid in the mid-1890's. Hutchison wanted to assist Lyman Gould to hear, hoping that his mute friend could speak after he heard sounds. Hutchison designed his hearing aids based on his knowledge that most hearing loss occurred because of auditory nerve problems or inflexible bones in ears that hindered hearing and speaking. Hutchison's device, incorporating an earpiece and transmitter, helped Gould hear several words Hutchison said to him, but Gould remained silent, content with being able to hear.

Hutchison refined his hearing aid, with intentions of marketing it, and named it the Acousticon, which he displayed to audiences in various forms as he altered its design. He focused on extending battery life to power his hearing aid and on reducing the size of the device, which began as a large wooden box containing the aid's components. Because the Acousticon performed the functions of the middle ear, its basic structure included a microphone, which collected sound waves that then vibrated on a diaphragm for amplification and transmission to earphones.

In November, 1901, Hutchison first filed for a hearing aid patent, which was issued the next year. He was the first inventor to create and market an electric hearing aid. His Akouphone Manufacturing Company in New York produced and distributed several hundred thousand Acousticons in the United States and Europe. Hutchison traveled to Paris and London in 1902 to demonstrate his hearing aid to scientists and royals, including Queen Alexandra, who was deaf, at Buckingham Palace. She presented Hutchison a gold medal honoring his inventiveness. In 1904, Thomas Alva Edison's wife purchased an Acousticon for Edison, who was partially deaf. Although Edison noted flaws in the Acousticon, he also praised it for helping him to hear a music concert.

The Acousticon's success motivated Hutchison to invent related devices, including the Massacon for physicians to massage ear drums with repetitive sounds that vibrated from a diaphragm and hit the middle ear. The Hutchison Acoustic Company first manufactured and sold Massacons in late 1902. This invention was referenced almost one century later in U.S. Patent number 5,788,656, an "Electronic Stimulation System for Treating Tinnitus Disorders" (1998), invented by Alfonso Di Mino. By May, 1905, Hutchison had received a patent for a device and procedure to test for deafness, evaluating hearing ability in order to select effective hearing aids.

Later inventors incorporated some of Hutchison's concepts to use battery-powered stimuli in smaller hearing devices worn externally or cochlear implants surgically placed inside ears.

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