Vintage PopSci: The iPhone 5 Is Cool And All, But These Handsfree "Sound Lenses" From 1949 Are Cooler

Popular Science artist's conception shows phone made possible by new sound lenses: 1949

Back in 1949, Bell Telephone Laboratories engineer Winston E. Kock imagined a “little black box you never have to touch – just talk and listen to.” He developed lenses that direct incoming sound toward the user and away from the transmitter, making clunky handsets obsolete:

You can understand why lenses are necessary if you've ever held an old-fashioned telephone receiver near the transmitter. The transmitter picks up the receiver's sound, which keeps going around the circuit until it is a howl.

"Kock shows microwave ancestry of sound lenses by using one lens to focus both types of waves":

Kock's vision of the future didn't stop at touch-free phones. His work on artificial dielectrics preceded metamaterials by half a century, and he patented an electronic organ in 1938. He went on to become the first director of NASA's Electronics Research Center.

"Spreading high-pitched musical notes from a single speaker may be use of this lens":

"Circular sheets of perforated metal make another type of acoustic lens":

"Difference in thickness between edge and middle slows some waves more than others, making them focus at a point":

"This lens consists of metal discs on an open framework. Originally built for microwaves, it also works for sound":

Read the full story in our October 1949 issue: Lenses Promise No-Hands Phone.