There is only one ear protector which I have found of any use and I have tried all that have come out.
It is called the Elliott Ear Protector and is made by J. A. R. Elliott, Box 201, New York City, U. S. A.
Savory & Moore of 143 New Bond Street, London and Gieve, Mathews & Seagrove, Portsmouth, England have them in stock.
Most other ear protectors act on the wrong principle and are painful to wear and they bring on giddiness.
To stuff the ears with cotton wool makes the pressure of air on the outside of the drum differ from the air coming through the Eustachian tube if this latter is blocked more or less by catarrh (as it is in nine out of ten persons, especially smokers or residents in damp climates). This inequality is increased and harm is done to the ear.
When a cold is supposed to be cured, it often is not but has gone from the early, through the acute, and on to the chronic stage. It then lies dormant, to wake up every time a fresh cold is caught, and then takes a deeper hold in the outer, middle, and inner ear. Often what is put down to gun deafness is really chronic catarrh and gout. People who have never fired a shot suffer from gun deafness and noises in the head.
As soon as a cold has ceased “to run” people think it is cured. They neglect to drive it entirely out of the system and it lies smouldering to take the earliest opportunity to flare up again, like a banked-up fire.
Some recommend wool mixture with modelling wax forced into the outer ear.
This not only has the defects of plain cotton wool but it is a compound impossible to fully take out again. The modelling composition sticks and remains in all the crevices of the ear and if forced repeatedly in dislocates the outer ear passage.
I use modelling wax for sculpture, and it is impossible to clean it out of the nails even with manicure instruments. It has to be dissolved with turpentine and peroxide which would ruin ears if used for them.