Was it Corso or Corsi . . . one of them . . . wrote of such.
He was far from a whackjob.
His book far from a whackjob rant.
It actually was in invented in 1925. Bell Labs improved on the design but it was mostly based on the 1925 model.
The guy Corso or Corsi who wrote the book made a lot of money on book sales.
He might not be a whack job but he definitely got whack jobs to buy his book.