Australia's oldest hearing aids?

Gladstone resident Grant Munce entered the competition with a pair of aids made in 1885.
Grant's entry into the event, run by Connect Hearing, saw him take out the prize for the oldest set in the competition in Queensland and Australia.
He says he came across the archaic contraptions in one of a number of safety deposit boxes that he inherited from his grandfather.
"I went to them with a hammer and chisel and opened them all," he said, describing when he received the boxes as a child.
"At the time it was good that I didn't damage them in any way, I've just been carrying them around as their carer for the last 50 years."

Victorian era to the 21st century

Grant says through research he has determined that they are from the Victorian era.
"I'd say it might have been a world's trade fair where they displayed new inventions and the guy who built them won a prize for the aids," he said.
"I've looked at them and I've wondered what the material is, from an engineering perspective, I was just curious."
They're a world away from the hearing aids that Grant now wears.
"The hearing aids are bluetooth to my phone and to a microphone, so if I go out somewhere and it's exceptionally noisy, I can click a mic onto you and it's just sent straight to my hearing aids and it makes life easy, better," he said.
See more here: http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2014/11/25/4135533.htm?site=capricornia