Stethoscope

• US 5,022,487 A
• Filed: 01/10/1990
• Issued: 06/11/1991
• Est. Priority Date: 01/16/1989
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Kirchner & Wilhelm GmbH & Company
• Original Assignee: Kirchner & Wilhelm
• Inventors: Kirchner, Ulrich
• Primary Examiner(s): Brown, Brian W.
• Application Number:
  US07/462,799
• Time in Patent Office: 517 Days
• Field of Search: 181/131, 181/137, 181/132
• US Class Current: 181/137
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 7/02 Stethoscopes acoustic details thereof G10K11/00

Abstract

A stethoscope includes a sound pickup and a reverberation chamber defined in a housing. The reverberation chamber is acoustically connected to binaurals through a connecting tubing. The reverberation chamber includes at least one sound inlet opening and the sound pickup includes at least one sound outlet opening, wherein at least one sound outlet opening and at least one sound inlet opening are arranged so as to be at least partially overlapping. The relative position of the at least one sound inlet opening and the at least one sound outlet opening is adjustable.

Claims

1. A stethoscope comprising a housing base member and a plate-shaped base member connected to the housing base member, the housing base member having a central bearing pin, a housing cover being rotatably mounted on the central bearing pin between the housing base member and the plate-shaped base member, the housing cover defining a sound inlet opening, means for limiting the relative rotation of the plate-shaped base member and the housing cover, the limiting means comprising a circular arc-shaped receiving means and a stop member engaging in the receiving means, the housing base member defining a reverberation chamber and a transverse bore in communication with the reverberation chamber, a connecting tubing connected to binaurals being attached to the housing base member and acoustically connected to the sound inlet opening of the housing cover through the transverse bore and the reverberation chamber in the housing base member, wherein the plate-shaped base member has two sound outlet openings which are offset in direction of rotation, the openings having diameters, wherein the two sound outlet openings have different diameters, wherein the sound outlet openings are alignable with the sound inlet opening by relative rotation of the housing cover and the plate-shaped base member, and wherein the diameter of the larger sound outlet opening of the plate-shaped base member corresponds essentially to the diameter of the sound inlet opening of the housing cover.

2. The stethoscope according to claim 1, wherein the circular arc-shaped receiving means is defined in the housing cover and the stop member is mounted on the sound pickup.

3. The stethoscope according to claim 1, comprising a radially projecting handle attached to the housing cover for turning the housing cover.

4. The stethoscope according to claim 1, wherein the two sound outlet openings of the sound pickup are arranged offset in circumferential direction of the housing cover, such that the smaller sound inlet opening is acoustically connected to the sound inlet opening approximately when the larger sound outlet opening is at least substantially closed by the housing cover.

5. The stethoscope according to claim 1, wherein the sound outlet openings have an end facing away from the housing cover, at least the smaller sound outlet opening having a funnel-like widening portion at the end facing away from the housing cover.

6. The stethoscope according to claim 1, wherein the sound pickup is a diaphragm piece.