The invention of radar in the 1930s not only saved Great Britain from the German Luftwaffe, it gave the Allies a huge advantage over their enemies in World War II. Imagine where we’d be if radar panned out and its forerunners – Sound Mirrors, Acoustic Horns and War Tubas – were the only means of detecting incoming aircraft?
Early Echlocation(images via: Ratiu Family Foundation and Michael Leong)
The roots of acoustic location extend back to the late 19th century, even before the invention of aircraft. The earliest rendition of such a device appeared in the pages of Scientific American magazine from 1880. “Professor Mayer’s topophone”, invented and patented by A. M. Mayer in 1879, was intended to assist the wearer in pinpointing the source of any sound. How’s that for Yankee ingenuity!
(image via: Modern Mechanix)
From the “building a better mousetrap” category comes the Shout-O-Phone, a souped-up version of Professor Mayer’s enhanced ears that boosts the outgoing sound as well. Amazing… not so much the device, but that it took 60 years for it to be produced.
The Ears Have It
(images via: Amplifier Institute Failures and Dark Roasted Blend)
Czech Mates
(image via: Amplifier Institute Failures)
Horns Of Plenty
(images via: Amplifier Institute Failures and Architectune)
Sounds Like War
(image via: Amplifier Institute Failures)
The 1930s saw rising tensions in Europe and rapid technological progress in aeronautics. Radar was on the horizon but until the newfangled machines were ready, something had to fill the gap.
Do I Hear Spitfires?
(image via: Damn Interesting)
Release The War Tubas!
(image via: Amplifier Institute Failures)
Let’s not forget Japan, though Japan would probably like to forget these bizarre yet magnificent “war tubas”. These were a variation of the acoustic horn listening devices, not an attempt to blow attacking aircraft out of the sky using low-pressure sound waves. That’s Emperor Hirohito reviewing the Imperial War Tuba Brigade in the top photo by the way, so you know they were serious.
(images via: Everyone Forever, C20 Society and Passing Strangeness)
The British were well along with large-scale radar installations as the blitzkrieg burst across continental Europe but taking nothing for granted, Churchill’s minions set up a significant number of concrete sound mirrors facing across the English Channel. many of these parabolic shells survive as abandonments today, a testament to a far-off time when wars were low-tech though no less deadly.
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