Littmann Stethoscope Sales - Information

History of Stethoscopes

Written by David Davis Tuesday, 17 August 2010 13:44

The French physician Rene Laennec developed the first wooden monaural stethoscope in 1819.  It had a large diameter base that was placed on the chest and the sound was passed through a smaller opening to one ear of the physician that was listening.  Following this the next important development was in 1843.  George P. Cammann engineered the first binaural stethoscope that was flexible and allowed the physician to hear the sound with both ears at the same time.  In 1855 he had developed his previous model to the extent of having and ebony chestpiece with flexible tubing made of wire spirals that was then wrapped in layers of silk and dipped in gum elastic.  The eartips were made of ivory.  By 1890 the first Cammann stethoscope was upgraded with a steel spring between the metal ear tubes with many other minor refinements occurring until the 1960's when Dr. Littmann, who was a Harvard Medical School Professor, developed a vastly improved stethoscope with significantly advanced acoustical qualities.

Dr. Littmann's new invention is commonly referred to as a "combination" or "two-sided chestpiece" stethoscope.  This was a huge advance in stethoscope technology.  Current 3M Littmann Classic II S.E. Stethoscopes contain many of the the features similar to the ones found in Dr. Littmann's first stethoscope designs.