Timeline for What would a 1940s audience have understood from the phrase "wired for sound"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
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| Jun 30, 2020 at 22:21 | comment | added | Ed999 | Hollywood song writer Irving Berlin, composing song lyrics in 1943, could not possibly have known any of the technical details of Allied proximity fuses used in World War 2, because all such devices were classified top secret. Nor, more importantly, could movie audiences have known about the classified details of those fuses. Therefore, including a reference to such devices in a song would make no sense. So whatever the lyrics in that song refer to, this cannot be a reference to a secret military development about which the movie-going public knew nothing. | |
| Jun 9, 2018 at 20:35 | vote | accept | Quuxplusone | ||
| May 26, 2018 at 17:21 | history | edited | Quuxplusone | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| May 26, 2018 at 9:01 | comment | added | J. Taylor | @Phil Sweet ...acoustic triggers did "wire for sound", but, were passive devices, and, most importantly, were extremely secret. any certain reference to such a device in a song would have had the song writer and performer in detention. | |
| May 26, 2018 at 1:45 | comment | added | Phil Sweet | Irving Berlin's reference is pretty straight forward. Acoustic triggers were one type of proximity fuse. "The British used a Rochelle salt microphone and a piezoelectric device to trigger a relay to detonate the projectile or bomb's explosive." | |
| May 26, 2018 at 0:19 | comment | added | Jason Bassford | To me, the use of wired for sound is simply an expression that means built for noise. Just as in the case of the "newfangled talkies," so to in the case of the bomb—which is going to make a large noise. Or a baby that's "wired for sound" to keep you up at night . . . | |
| May 25, 2018 at 20:42 | answer | added | eSurfsnake | timeline score: 0 | |
| May 25, 2018 at 19:32 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/StackEnglish/status/1000097401498210304 | ||
| May 25, 2018 at 18:39 | answer | added | J. Taylor | timeline score: 2 | |
| May 25, 2018 at 17:38 | history | asked | Quuxplusone | CC BY-SA 4.0 |