Prussian Scream Test

A machine designed to hurt the ears of several hundred people at a time was grimly experimented with last week, by Prime Minister Otto Braun of Prussia.

Though Prime Minister Braun is a humanitarian and a Socialist, he has grown tired and angry at the conduct of Communist and Monarchist deputies who constantly obstruct proceedings of the Prussian Diet by their catcalls and hoots (TIME, Oct. 25, 1926).

Last week the machine for hurting ears was installed in the Diet building and a dozen hired mendicants were brought in to test the apparatus by being hurt.

At the click of a switch super-power "scream amplifiers" came into action, and words conversationally spoken into a microphone on the desk of the President of the Diet resounded through the hall like deafening thunder peals.

Several participants in the test rushed from their seats in acute distress, and 24 hours later two of those who fled reported that their ears still rang, pained.