The first electronic hearing aid was called an Akouphone, and was invented by Miller Reese Hutchinson. It used a carbon transmitter created by Thomas Edison which could increase sound by about 15 decibels by using an electric current to make the sound signal stronger. These first electronic hearing aids were portable but still a little large and were not easily carried around. Also, they sometimes had a scratchy noise and could not pick up all sounds so were not ideal. 