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Cone of Silence (device)


The Cone of Silence is one of many recurring joke devices from Get Smart, an American comedy television series of the 1960s about an inept spy. The essence of the joke is that the apparatus, designed for secret conversations, makes it impossible for those inside the device - and easy for those outside the device - to hear the conversation. The end result being neither secret nor communication.

In popular culture, "cone of silence" is a slang phrase meaning that the speaker wishes to keep the indicated information secret and that the conversation should not be repeated to anyone not currently present. For example: "We aren't inviting Cindy and her boyfriend to the movies because they embarrass us, but keep that in the cone of silence."

Although Get Smart popularized the term, the "Cone of Silence" actually originated on the syndicated TV show Science Fiction Theatre in an episode titled "Barrier of Silence" written by Lou Huston and first airing September 3, 1955, 10 years ahead of the NBC comedy. The story focused on finding a cure for Professor Richard Sheldon, who had been returned to the United States in a confused, altered state of mind after abduction by enemy agents while visiting Milan. Scientists discovered that placing Sheldon in an environment of total silence was the means of brainwashing, a precursor to later ideas of sensory deprivation, celebrated in such films as Altered States and sundry spy thrillers. He was placed on a chair in the "Cone of Silence" which consisted of a raised circular platform suspended by three wires tied to a common vertex. Although the cone's surface was open, noise canceling sound generators located just below the vertex would shroud anyone sitting inside in a complete silence impossible in natural surroundings. It was also demonstrated that anyone speaking inside the cone could not be heard outside, which was the feature later parodied in Get Smart. Only a speculative, "science fiction" possibility at that time, such technology is now commonplace in active noise canceling electronics for personal and industrial use.

The concept had been explored in Arthur C. Clarke's 1950 short story "Silence Please", which features a device capable of cancelling sound waves.


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