The Stethoscope was invented in France in 1816, and its prototype was made of wood. Its original design looked like a common ear trumpet used during those days by those who were hard of hearing. It was finally in 1852 that the design was perfected and was ready for commercial use and that has been the standard model of the Stethoscope used till date all over the world. In the 1940’s however, this design was further perfected and modernized by the Hewlett Packard Medical Division and later sold to Philips.

Like any other instrument that would help to amplify sound, there are some specifications for which the designs are a little different according to the requirement. It is the Acoustic Stethoscope that is most familiar to the common man. This operates very simply; there is a chest piece which picks up the sounds which are transmitted to the listener’s earpiece via hollow air filled tubes. The chest piece usually has two sides, the Diaphragm (the disc) and the Bell (the hollow). The problem with such Stethoscopes is that the frequency of the sounds that they transmit is very low.
Electronic Stethoscopes are the newest rage. They function in the same way that an Acoustic Stethoscope does, it converts the acoustic sound waves which it picks up to electrical signals which can then be amplified, and thus sounds can be heard louder than the average Acoustic ones. At present, many Medical Equipment companies offer these Stethoscopes and it can be predicted that in sometime they would have surpassed the use of the Acoustic Stethoscopes.

There are also other special Stethoscopes such as the Fetal Stethoscope or the Fetoscope. This is also like an Acoustic Stethoscope but shaped like a trumpet. Its function is to transmit the sounds of the heart of the fetus and is therefore placed against the abdomen of an expecting mother.  It is also known as Pinard’s Stethoscope or a Pinard.