Madsen moves to Copenhagen

Building on the work of Dr. Otto Metz, Dr. K. Terkildsen of the University Hospital of Copenhagen (Rigshospitalet) and Engineer Scott-Nielsen had been experimenting for some time with impedance measurements of the middle ear.

By 1960, they needed someone to convert their drawings into a working instrument so they turned to Poul Madsen. Since this collaboration presented an opportunity to move to Copenhagen, Madsen sold Amplex to the Krogsø family (who changed the company’s name to Kamplex, which subsequently became Danplex) and founded Madsen Electronics.

Within two years, the world’s first electro-acoustic “impedance bridge” was a reality.

Scott-Nielsen and Terkildsen with the ZO 61
electro-acoustic “impedance bridge.

Spreading the word about impedance measurements

The 1960s saw Madsen Electronics expand to a full product line of both portable and stationary audiometers and impedance bridges (forerunners of today’s middle ear analyzers).

Madsen, Terkildsen and Scott-Nielsen traveled the world holding seminars on impedance measurements. Because of the speed and objectivity with which it detected middle ear abnormalities, this application gained rapid acceptance in Europe and, especially, in the USA.

In fact, such was the interest in the new technique that Poul Madsen decided to cross the Atlantic permanently and so, in the late 1960s, he moved to Canada where he set up Madsen Electronics, Inc., in Toronto, and with a sales office in Buffalo, NY.