A field or zone wherein the sound of the human voice was elecfroni-cally distorted so that recording and amplifying devices could not reproduce it effectively or clearly sometimes called a "sound-deadening field" The size of a "cone of silence" depended partly on the strength of the electronic impulse broadcast, but for practical purposes it was usually a small area about three to four meters in diameter The purpose of the cone of silence was fairly obvious in an aristocratic society given to Byzantine refinements of palace mtngue According to the Oral History, there were more than twenty cones of silence in the main Harkonnen palace on Giedi Prime and it was in one of (faese that Mental Piter de Vnes and Baron Vladimir discussed an un successful assassination attempt-the famous episode of the poisoned kmdjal-OB Duke Leto Atreides It is known that Baron Harkonnen once threatened an emissary of Emperor Shaddan IV, Count Hasinur ferffmg, in a cone of silence at his palace The cone of silence was also used by other Great Houses of course, and enjoyed an existence at the Imperial court in the pre Atreides Imperium Originally, the cone of silence was developed by Ixian technicians in the fourth millennium but it proved to be fairly easy for electronic technicians to reproduce Nevertheless, the Great Houses frequently hired Ixian masters under the supervision of the House master assassin to inspect and refurbish the audito ry facilities-both recorders and cones-of a residential palace Further references HarqalAIda 1 he Dune Catastrophe tt Mngal Reed (Mukan Lotharj Tovat Owinsted The Cfmmicles of the Conquerors fCaladan INS Books) CONTRACEPTION. For centuries after the Butlenan Jihad, contraception was an idea seldom mentioned and a practice even more rarely put to use Since it was the machine ordered abortion of one female child which sparked the Jihad and since so few planets had escaped the Jihad s wrath without sub stantiaf loss of life, the practice on most worlds was for each couple to have and raise as many children as possible After the Treaty of C