There is a legend that Benjamin Franklin used that technique (with contemporary technology -- foil & a charged Leyden jar) to discourage the customers of a pub adjacent to his garden wall. However, my mother, who was an expert on Franklin, assured me that it was not so.

Young Buchan: I believe it is the case that officials of the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York made some effort to determine what kind of music would deter riffraff from hanging out there, and Mozart won the prize.