Matthew Bevan

Because it all sounds very secret spy.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

And it didn't become public in 1952 either.

So the Americans found the device in 1952.

They all kind of freaked out about it.

The CIA was, you know, studying this thing and trying to replicate it, you know, use the technology in it invented by Theremin to sort of develop new ways of creating other devices.

But they decided not to make it public.

both because they wanted a bit of a head start developing similar technology, but also they thought that they would be able to use it as leverage over the Soviet Union.

And they sat on that information for eight years, until in 1960, an American U-2 spy plane was flying over Russia, taking photos, aerial photos of Russian military installations,

when it was shot down and crashed and the pilot taken into Soviet custody.

And the Soviets went to the United Nations and went, how dare the Americans spy on us?

We would never dream of doing anything so outrageous as spying on the Americans.

And the US...

a bit embarrassed by the entire situation, but they decided that now was the time to prove that, in fact, the Soviets do spy on us.

In fact, they brought the Great Seal with the device inside it into the UN Security Council chamber, and the US ambassador opened it up.

It is.

It's incredible, isn't it?

I mean, it's this guy who, you know, it's amazing because we know the inventor a bit, you know?

It's like it wasn't just this random...