Let It Ring!

To telephone slaves a Swiss robot now promises freedom. Its name: Ipsophone. This amazing, almost human instrument automatically answers phone calls, gives and takes messages, rebuffs unwanted callers with a busy signal, records long conversations, and faithfully plays back everything it has heard whenever its master chooses to listen.

The instrument, which includes an ordinary telephone receiver, a wire recorder and a push-button control box, is the first fully automatic telephonograph. If its owner is busy or out, the gadget patiently waits out four rings, then croaks: "This is the Ipsophone, Blank Company, Mr. Smith's office. Attention. Please speak-now." If the caller is struck speechless, the machine waits politely for twelve seconds then repeats its invitation. The Ipsophone will listen for up to half an hour without interruption, recording every word.

Numbers Game. Anytime he feels curious, the robot's master can get a complete report by dropping into a phone booth and calling up his Ipsophone.

To prevent snooping by casual callers, the playback can be controlled by setting a code number in the machine before leaving. When you call from outside, after the Ipsophone has announced itself, you say firmly: "Hello, hello." The Ipsophone then switches to another track and slowly reels off a series of numbers; after each number in the code you repeat, "Hello, hello." If you get the combination right, the Ipsophone plays back the messages; if not, it emits a derisive busy signal. After hearing all the messages, you wait for a sign-off buzz, then pronounce, "Erase, Erase," and the record is wiped clean.

The machine is a considerable improvement on similar prewar devices, which were restricted to taking messages of less than 30 seconds. A German invention, it was developed during the war by Ernst Keller, a young ballistics expert for the Swiss company which made the famed Oerlikon antiaircraft gun. He worked out an elaborate system of acoustic relays for translating the instructions given the machine into its robot responses.

About 80 Ipsophones (rented at $35 per month) are now in use by Swiss firms. Last week their manufacturer (Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik Oerlikon), just removed from a blacklist of firms which helped the Nazis, was laying plans to market the Ipsophone throughout the world.

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