Patently Rediculous

[Snowflake]

Ha! Given inspiration of LoT and the European Patent Office to search on query terms (USPTO only has full text back to 1976) and EPO you can search in the abstract (summary of the invention in quick and dirty text) and I remembered the year of the issuance of the patent, voila, I give you the invention entitled "Apparatus for Obtaining Criminal Confessions and Photographically Recording Them" invented by Helene A.Shelby. It was filed in 1927 and issued in 1930. No record of it being licensed or constructed.

Here's the first two paragraphs of the description in patent-speak:

The present invention relates to a new and useful apparatus for obtaining confessions from culprits, or those suspected of the commission of crimes, and photographically recording them, in the form of sound waves, in conjunction with their pictures, depicting their every expression and emotion, to be preserved for later reproduction as evidence against them.

The primary object of my invention is the provision of an apparatus for the creation of illusory effects calculated to impress the subject with the being of a supernatural character and so to work upon his imagination as to enable an inquisitor operating in conjunction with the recording system to obtain confessions and graphically record them by light action under the control of electric impulses governed by varying intensities of sound waves.

No doubt, a noble effort. If you are interested, PM and I can email you the PDF of the patent and the figures.

it's silly, it's dumb, it makes me happy to have found this again.