Prototype 'gold box' cochlear implant

Prototype 'gold box' cochlear implant or bionic ear, mixed materials, designed and made at the University of Melbourne Department of Ear, Nose and Throat Surgery, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 1979

Comprises a gold-coated stainless steel box containing electrical components (a sandwich of three razor thin sub-strata with silicon chips and thousands of transistors). Visible on top of the box is a red enamel-coated copper coil that forms the receiver. This has a carbon base back plate behind it. The package is coated in clear silicone, an electrode protrudes from the box and contains twenty electrodes of which ten were active. The reverse of the device is coated in white silicone incorporating a layer of Dacron mesh which was designed to help bind the device to the body and keep it in place inside the patient.