The Littmann Collection

Ron Littmann, the grandson of Dr. David Littmann, provided this brief history of the development of the Littmann stethoscope: "My Grandfather owned a house in Medford Mass where my father was born.  In his basement he had an old-fashioned metal lathe he used to tinker with and where he created the stethoscopes and the chest pieces. Gus Machlup and his family fled Austria and came to America in 1939 to escape Hitler and the Nazi Regime. My Grandfathers house in Medford was like a duplex split in half. He rented the other half to Machlup and his family. Gus was an entrepreneur. My grandfather was tinkering in his basement, and he showed them to Gus and the rest was history. So as the story goes David created more and more out his basement and Gus convinced him that my grandfather wouldn’t have to put any more money in, Gus would foot the bill, and they formed a business partnership to produce the Littmann stethoscope. David sold them out of his basement as Gus did the footwork. The cost back then was $25.00 per scope and if you bought 3 they were reduced to $18.75 each (no kidding). The scope caught wildfire and in 1961 together they had a production facility in Cambridge, Mass (Cardiosonics). The factory production was increased, and it just took off from there. My grandfather was working on a special EKG lead of some sort when Cardiosonics was sold to 3M in 1967, and they continue to produce the Littmann stethoscope today."