Thing (listening device)

The Thing (english The Thing ) is the name for a Soviet listening device that was hidden in a carving of the American coat of arms. The carving has been handed over to the then U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1945 and hung until its discovery in 1952 at his residence.

The thing was mainly composed of a vibrating diaphragm and an antenna. The thing did not require its own power source, but a modulated light irradiated from outside signal when this had the right frequency. The principle of operation is thus similar to that of a high-frequency capacitor microphone. It was developed by Leon Theremin ( Lev terms ), who also invented the first production-ready electronic instrument, the theremin.