Medicine: Only $40 a Pound

Zenith Radio Corp. gave out some deafening whoops last week in praise of its new cut-rate hearing aid. Zenith believes that this new $40 device (good hearing aids now cost from $100 to $200) will sharpen the ears of 10,000,000 deaf U. S. citizens.

It seemed ridiculous that Zenith and other companies could sell a good little radio for around $29 or less, while a one-pound hearing aid, essentially a part of a radio receiver, might cost eight or nine times as much. So for the last five and a half years Zenith's engineers have worked at the new hearing device and...