The Thing (listening device)

to U.S. Ambassador W. Averell Harriman, as a gesture

of friendship to the USSRs World War II ally. It hung
in the ambassadors Moscow residential study for seven
years, until it was exposed in 1952 during the tenure of
Ambassador George F. Kennan.[4]

3 Operating principles
The Thing consisted of a tiny capacitive membrane con-
nected to a small quarter-wavelength antenna; it had no
power supply or active electronic components. The de-
vice, a passive cavity resonator, became active only when
Replica of the Great Seal which contained a Soviet bugging de- a radio signal of the correct frequency was sent to the de-
vice, on display at the NSA's National Cryptologic Museum. vice from an external transmitter. This is currently re-
ferred in NSA parlance as illuminating a passive de-
The Thing, also known as the Great Seal bug, was one vice. Sound waves (from voices inside the ambassadors
of the rst covert listening devices (or bugs) to use pas- oce) passed through the thin wood case, striking the
sive techniques to transmit an audio signal. It was con- membrane and causing it to vibrate. The movement
cealed inside a gift given by the Soviets to the US Am- of the membrane varied the capacitance seen by the
bassador to Moscow on August 4, 1945. Because it was antenna, which in turn modulated the radio waves that
passive, being energized and activated by electromagnetic struck and were re-transmitted by the Thing. A receiver
energy from an outside source, it is considered a prede- demodulated the signal so that sound picked up by the
cessor of RFID technology.[1] microphone could be heard, just as an ordinary radio re-
ceiver demodulates radio signals and outputs sound.
Theremins design made the listening device very di-
1 Creation cult to detect, because it was very small, had no power
supply or active electronic components, and did not radi-
The Thing was designed by Soviet Russian inventor Lon ate any signal unless it was actively being irradiated re-
Theremin,[2] whose best-known invention is the elec- motely. However, these same design features, along with
tronic musical instrument the theremin. the overall simplicity of the device, made it very reliable
and gave it a potentially unlimited operational life.
The principle operational component of The Thing, a res-
onant cavity microphone, had been patented by Wineld
R. Koch of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) in
3.1 Technical details
1941. In US patent 2,238,117 he describes the principle
of a sound-modulated resonant cavity. High-frequency
The device consisted of a 9-inch (23 cm) long monopole
energy is inductively coupled to the cavity. The resonant
antenna (quarter-wave for 330 megahertz (MHz) fre-
frequency is varied by the change in capacitance resulting
quencies, but able to also act as half-wave or full-wave,
from the displacement of the acoustic diaphragm.[3]
the accounts dier)a straight rod, led through an in-
sulating bushing into a cavity, where it was terminated
with a round disc that formed one plate of a capacitor.
2 Installation and use The cavity was a high-Q round silver-plated copper can,
with the internal diameter of 0.775 in (19.7 mm) and
The device was used by the Soviet Union to spy on the about 11/16 in (17.5 mm) long, with inductance of about
United States. It was embedded in a carved wooden 10 nanohenry.[5] Its front side was closed with a very
plaque of the Great Seal of the United States. On August thin (3 mil, or 75 micrometers) and fragile conductive
4, 1945, a delegation from the Young Pioneer organiza- membrane. In the middle of the cavity was a mushroom-
tion of the Soviet Union presented the bugged carving shaped at-faced tuning post, with its top adjustable to

1
2 7 NOTES

make it possible to set the membrane-post distance; the damaged during handling by the Americans; Wright had
membrane and the post formed a variable capacitor act- to replace it.
ing as a condenser microphone and providing amplitude The simplicity of the device caused some initial confusion
modulation (AM), with parasitic frequency modulation during its analysis; the antenna and resonator had several
(FM) for the re-radiated signal. The post had machined resonant frequencies in addition to its main one, and the
grooves and radial lines into its face, probably to provide modulation was partially both amplitude modulated and
channels for air ow to reduce pneumatic damping of the frequency modulated. The team also lost some time on
membrane. The antenna was capacitively coupled to the an assumption that the distance between the membrane
post via its disc-shaped end. The total weight of the unit,
and the tuning post needed to be increased to increase
including the antenna, was 1.1 ounce (31 grams). resonance.
The length of the antenna and the dimensions of the cavity
were engineered in order to make the re-broadcast signal
a higher harmonic of the illuminating frequency.[6] 5 Aftermath
The original device was located with the can under the
beak of the eagle on the Great Seal presented to W. Wrights examination led to development of a similar
Averell Harriman (see below); accounts dier on whether British system codenamed SATYR, used throughout the
holes were drilled into the beak to allow sound waves to 1950s by the British, Americans, Canadians and Aus-
reach the membrane. Other sources say the wood behind tralians.
the beak was undrilled but thin enough to pass the sound,
There were later models of the device, some with more
or that the hollowed space acted like a soundboard to con-
complex internal structure (the center post under the
centrate the sound from the room onto the microphone.
membrane attached to a helix, probably to increase Q),
The illuminating frequency used by the Soviets is said to and some American models with dipole antennas. Max-
be 330 MHz.[7] imizing the Q-factor was one of the engineering priori-
ties, as this allowed higher selectivity to the illuminating
signal frequency, and therefore higher operating distance
and also higher acoustic sensitivity.[8]
4 Discovery
In May 1960, The Thing was mentioned on the fourth
day of meetings in the United Nations Security Council,
The existence of the bug was discovered accidentally by
convened by the Soviet Union over the 1960 U-2 inci-
a British radio operator at the British embassy who over-
dent where a U.S. spy plane had entered their territory
heard American conversations on an open radio chan-
and been shot down. The U.S. ambassador Henry Cabot
nel as the Soviets were beaming radio waves at the
Lodge Jr. showed o the bugging device in the Great
ambassadors oce. An American State Department
Seal to illustrate that spying incidents between the two
employee was then able to reproduce the results us-
nations were mutual and to allege that Nikita Khrushchev
ing an untuned wideband receiver with a simple diode
had magnied this particular incident out of all propor-
detector/demodulator,[8] similar to some eld strength
tion as a pretext to abort the 1960 Paris Summit.[9][10]
meters.
Two additional State Department employees, John W.
Ford and Joseph Bezjian, were sent to Moscow in March 6 See also
1951 to investigate this and other suspected bugs in the
British and Canadian embassy buildings. They conducted
Nonlinear junction detector
a technical surveillance counter-measures sweep of the
Ambassadors oce, using a signal generator and a re- TEMPEST
ceiver in a setup that generates audio feedback (howl)
if the sound from the room is transmitted on a given fre- Surveillance
quency. During this sweep, Bezjian found the device in
the Great Seal carving.[8]:2
The Central Intelligence Agency set about to analyze
7 Notes
the device, and hired people from the British Marconi
Company to help with the analysis. Marconi tech- [1] Hacking Exposed Linux: Linux Security Secrets & Solutions
(third ed.). McGraw-Hill Osborne Media. 2008. p. 298.
nician Peter Wright, a British scientist and later MI5
ISBN 978-0-07-226257-5.
counterintelligence ocer, ran the investigation.[8] He
was able to get The Thing working reliably with an il- [2] Glinsky, Albert, Theremin: Ether Music and Espionage,
luminating frequency of 800 MHz. The generator which University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 2000
had discovered the device was tuned to 1800 MHz.
[3] US Patent 2238117, Koch, Wineld R, Ultra high
The membrane of the Thing was extremely thin, and was frequency modulator, published 1941-04-15, assigned
 3

to Radio Corporation of America(RCA). Retrieved 24

September 2013. "US 2238117 A" Google Patent Search

[4] George F. Kennan, Memoirs, 19501963, Volume II (Lit-

tle, Brown & Co., 1972), pp. 155, 156

[5] Brown(?), Robert. M. (1967). Electronic Eavesdrop-

ing. Electronics World. Zi-Davis Publishing Company.
77 (3-6): 23. Retrieved 24 September 2013.

[6] Design How-To: Eavesdropping using microwaves ad-

dendum. EE Times (eetimes.com). United Business Me-
dia. 12 November 2005. Retrieved 24 September 2013.

[7] Pursglove, S. David (1966). Great Seal Bug. Electronic

Design. Hayden Publishing Company. 14 (1417): 35.
Retrieved 24 September 2013.

[8] Murray, Kevin. THE GREAT SEAL BUG STORY.

CounterEspionage. counterespionage.com. Retrieved
January 10, 2016.

[9] United Nations Security Council Verbatim Report

860.S/PV/860 page 15. 26 May 1960. Retrieved
2008-08-29.

[10] Maurits Martijn (24 September 2015). Operatie Leun-

stoel: hoe een klein Nederlands bedrijf de CIA hielp om
de Russen af te luisteren (in Dutch). De Correspondent.

8 References
Wright, Peter (1987). Spycatcher: The Candid Au-
tobiography of a Senior Intelligence Ocer. New
York: Viking. ISBN 0-670-82055-5.
Kennan, George (1967). Memoirs, 19251950. Lit-
tle, Brown.
Kennan, George (1983). Memoirs: 19501963.
Pantheon. ISBN 978-0-394-71626-8.

9 External links
Passive Resonant Cavity & Spycatcher Technical
Surveillance Devices

The Great Seal Bug Story, Spybusters, Kevin D.

Murray

A Trojan Seal Security Management, Ken Stanley,

April 2010

History of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security of the

United States Department of State, October 2011,
pp. 136137
How the Soviet Union spied on the US embassy for
7 years, Hackaday, Adam Fabio, December 2015
4 10 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

10 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

10.1 Text
The Thing (listening device) Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)?oldid=745659273 Contributors: David
spector, Stefan Khn, Glenn Koenig, Peak Freak, Carptrash, Jnestorius, Hooperbloob, Dhartung, Danhash, BillC, Koavf, Hydrargyrum,
Shaddack, Korny O'Near, Ninly, Groyolo, Finell, A bit iy, SmackBot, F, Herostratus, Mauls, DMacks, Lambiam, Calvados~enwiki,
Ferko7, Pmussler, Goatchurch, Cydebot, Tec15, Nabokov, Alaibot, Thijs!bot, Sagaciousuk, Reyals, Lklundin, Darrenhusted, DagosNavy,
Nyq, Blooy, Olegwiki, FuegoFish, TXiKiBoT, Andy Dingley, Ctamirisa, Mikebar, ClueBot, Bdkives, Excirial, Arjayay, Shpakovich, Bil-
sonius, NonNobisSolum, Addbot, Nohomers48, Lightbot, OlEnglish, Yobot, AnomieBOT, Cliftonian, Johnny Controletti, Xqbot, Hy-
drobrain, Trappist the monk, Throwaway85, Andreldritch, Widr, Helpful Pixie Bot, Kendall-K1, 220 of Borg, Rezonansowy, Mogism,
RobH103, 93, Flat Out, Hansmuller, Alexqb1212, Filedelinkerbot, Suctioninfo2, 24ghz, Characterius, Bransonalum, Anonymiscellaneous,
Bender the Bot and Anonymous: 45

10.2 Images
File:Bugged-great-seal-open.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Bugged-great-seal-open.jpg License:
CC BY-SA 2.0 Contributors: IMG_0214 Original artist: Austin Mills
File:Commons-logo.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contribu-
tors: ? Original artist: ?

10.3 Content license

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