His listening device, "The Thing", hung for seven years in plain view in the United States Ambassador's Moscow office and enabled Soviet agents to eavesdrop on secret conversations. ==Early life== Leon Theremin was born in Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire in 1896 into a family of French Huguenot and German ancestry.
On 9 May 1913 Theremin and his cousin attended Ioffe's dissertation defense.
Theremin recalled that Ioffe reassured him that the war would not last long and that military experience would be useful for scientific applications. Beginning his military service in 1916, Theremin finished the Military Engineering School in six months, progressed through the Graduate Electronic School for Officers, and attained the military radio-engineer diploma in the same year.
In 1917 Theremin wrote that Ioffe talked of electrons, the photoelectric effect and magnetic fields as parts of an objective reality that surrounds us every day, unlike others that talked more of somewhat abstract formulae and symbols.
In October 1920 he first demonstrated this to Ioffe who called in other professors and students to hear.
By November 1920 Theremin had given his first public concert with the instrument, now modified with a horizontal volume antenna replacing the earlier foot-operated volume control.
He named it the "etherphone", to be known as the Терменвокс (Termenvox) in the Soviet Union, as the Thereminvox in Germany, and later as the "theremin" in the United States. On 24 May 1924 Theremin married 20-year-old Katia (Ekaterina Pavlovna) Konstantinova, and they lived together in his parents' apartment on Marat street. In 1925 Theremin went to Germany to sell both the radio watchman and Termenvox patents to the German firm Goldberg and Sons.
He named it the "etherphone", to be known as the Терменвокс (Termenvox) in the Soviet Union, as the Thereminvox in Germany, and later as the "theremin" in the United States. On 24 May 1924 Theremin married 20-year-old Katia (Ekaterina Pavlovna) Konstantinova, and they lived together in his parents' apartment on Marat street. In 1925 Theremin went to Germany to sell both the radio watchman and Termenvox patents to the German firm Goldberg and Sons.
According to Glinsky, this was the Soviet's "decoy for capitalists" to obtain both Western profits from sales and technical knowledge. During this time Theremin was also working on a wireless television with 16 scan lines in 1925, improving to 32 scan lines and then 64 using interlacing in 1926, and he demonstrated moving, if blurry, images on 7 June 1927.
According to Glinsky, this was the Soviet's "decoy for capitalists" to obtain both Western profits from sales and technical knowledge. During this time Theremin was also working on a wireless television with 16 scan lines in 1925, improving to 32 scan lines and then 64 using interlacing in 1926, and he demonstrated moving, if blurry, images on 7 June 1927.
According to Glinsky, this was the Soviet's "decoy for capitalists" to obtain both Western profits from sales and technical knowledge. During this time Theremin was also working on a wireless television with 16 scan lines in 1925, improving to 32 scan lines and then 64 using interlacing in 1926, and he demonstrated moving, if blurry, images on 7 June 1927.
His device was the first functioning television apparatus in Russia. ==United States== After being sent on a lengthy tour of Europe starting 1927 – including London, Paris and towns in Germany – during which he demonstrated his invention to full audiences, Theremin found his way to the United States, arriving on 30 December 1927 with his first wife Katia.
He performed the theremin with the New York Philharmonic in 1928.
He patented his invention in the United States in 1928 and subsequently granted commercial production rights to RCA. Theremin set up a laboratory in New York in the 1930s, where he further refined the theremin and experimented with other inventions and new electronic musical instruments.
He patented his invention in the United States in 1928 and subsequently granted commercial production rights to RCA. Theremin set up a laboratory in New York in the 1930s, where he further refined the theremin and experimented with other inventions and new electronic musical instruments.
These included the Rhythmicon, commissioned by the Russian composer and theorist Joseph Schillinger. In 1930, ten thereminists performed on stage at Carnegie Hall.
Two years later, Theremin conducted the first-ever electronic orchestra, featuring the theremin and other electronic instruments including a "fingerboard" theremin which resembled a cello in use (Theremin was a cellist). In 1931, he worked with composer Joseph Schillinger to build an instrument called the rhythmicon.
Their marriage caused shock and disapproval in his social circles, but the ostracized couple remained together. ==Return to the Soviet Union== Theremin abruptly returned to the Soviet Union in 1938.
In 1945, Soviet school children presented the concealed bug to the U.S.
In 1947, Theremin was awarded the Stalin prize for inventing this advance in Soviet espionage technology. Theremin invented another listening device called The Thing, hidden in a replica of the Great Seal of the United States carved in wood.
It hung in the ambassador’s residential office in Moscow and intercepted confidential conversations there during the first seven years of the Cold War, until it was accidentally discovered in 1952. ==Later life== After his release from the sharashka in 1947, Theremin volunteered to remain working with the KGB until 1966.
By 1947 Theremin had remarried, to Maria Guschina, his third wife, and they had two children: Lena and Natalia. Theremin worked at the Moscow Conservatory of Music for 10 years where he taught, and built theremins, electronic cellos and some terpsitones (another invention of Theremin).
It hung in the ambassador’s residential office in Moscow and intercepted confidential conversations there during the first seven years of the Cold War, until it was accidentally discovered in 1952. ==Later life== After his release from the sharashka in 1947, Theremin volunteered to remain working with the KGB until 1966.
The Soviet Union rehabilitated him in 1956. ==Espionage== During his work at the sharashka, where he was put in charge of other workers, Theremin created the Buran eavesdropping system.
It hung in the ambassador’s residential office in Moscow and intercepted confidential conversations there during the first seven years of the Cold War, until it was accidentally discovered in 1952. ==Later life== After his release from the sharashka in 1947, Theremin volunteered to remain working with the KGB until 1966.
Further electronic music projects were banned, and Theremin was summarily dismissed. In the 1970s, Leon Theremin was a Professor of Physics at Moscow State University (Department of Acoustics) developing his inventions and supervising graduate students. After 51 years in the Soviet Union Theremin started travelling, first visiting France in June 1989 and then the United States in 1991, each time accompanied by his daughter Natalia.
Further electronic music projects were banned, and Theremin was summarily dismissed. In the 1970s, Leon Theremin was a Professor of Physics at Moscow State University (Department of Acoustics) developing his inventions and supervising graduate students. After 51 years in the Soviet Union Theremin started travelling, first visiting France in June 1989 and then the United States in 1991, each time accompanied by his daughter Natalia.
Further electronic music projects were banned, and Theremin was summarily dismissed. In the 1970s, Leon Theremin was a Professor of Physics at Moscow State University (Department of Acoustics) developing his inventions and supervising graduate students. After 51 years in the Soviet Union Theremin started travelling, first visiting France in June 1989 and then the United States in 1991, each time accompanied by his daughter Natalia.
Leon Theremin (born Lev Sergeyevich Termen Лев Сергеевич Термéн|p=ˈlʲef sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪvʲɪtɕ tɨrˈmʲen; – 3 November 1993) was a Russian and Soviet inventor, most famous for his invention of the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments and the first to be mass-produced.
The novel won the 2014 Scotiabank Giller Prize. ==Notable inventions== Theremin (1920) Burglar alarm, or "Signalling Apparatus" which used the Theremin effect (1920s). Electromechanical television – Nipkow disk with mirrors instead of slots (ca.
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