It is natural to think that hearing science progresses linearly, making new discoveries and opening up fresh vistas. But it doesn’t always happen that way, and false starts are not uncommon. Here a brief survey is made of ideas about the mechanics of the middle ear and cochlea that appeared before 1900 but which have now, after a period of neglect, attracted renewed attention. Luminaries of 19th-century otology – Helmholtz and Weber-Liel – are used to illustrate the case. Three of their ideas – the mode of action of the middle ear muscles, the role of intralabyrinthine pressure, and resonance in the cochlea – were central to their thinking but for various reasons were later set aside. Notably, however, some old perspectives – such as the value of tenotomy in Meniere’s disease – appear consistent with recent suggestions. Another discovery of modern science – Piezo1, a piezoelectric channel protein shaped like a propeller – strengthens the idea that pressure-sensing is crucial to cochlear function and indeed that Helmholtz’s original resonance theory might still have merit.