In terms of modern security systems, closed-circuit television is perhaps the most important widespread addition, as it allows every business regardless of size to carefully monitor their premises and raise the alarm to ensure that potential intruders do not have the time to commit crimes.
Whilst originally only available to the biggest corporations and government facilities, CCTV installation is so widespread and low-cost that any business can afford a setup, and it has one of the best cost-benefit ratios of any high-tech security system out there.
What is interesting about CCTV is that whilst its inventor is a well-known public figure of the 20th century with an invention named after him, the fact he was involved with CCTV is not as widely discussed, despite the critical role he has played in security since.
Music And Security
Born Lev Terman in Saint Petersburg in what was at the time the Russian Empire, Leon Theremin is best known for his invention of the first-ever mass-produced electronic music instrument.
However, whilst this is by far his most famous invention and the one that turned him into a celebrity in 1920s and 30s American culture, before that he was an engineer working at the Physical Technical Institute in Petrograd (later Leningrad, now Saint Petersburg).
His first invention there was the “Radio Watchman”, the first-ever motion detector designed for a security alarm. This security device led to the adaptation of the underlying technology to create the theremin.
However, during this time selling the patents to this invention to a German firm, Mr Theremin was working on one of his biggest and most impactful inventions in parallel to John Logie Baird.
Based on a request from the Soviet Union Council of Labour and Defence, Mr Theremin developed an electromechanical closed-circuit television system consisting of a manually operated camera and wireless transmission.
Initially limited to just 16 scan lines in 1925, the technology improved by 1927 to 100 lines and had the capacity to broadcast images in motion, albeit with a motion blur common to a lot of early television experiments.
The system, once successful, was co-opted by Kliment Voroshilov, one of the Marshals of the Soviet Union under only Generalissimo Joseph Stalin.
Once the camera system was demonstrated to Mr Stalin and two other high-ranking officers, it became the first security camera in operation, monitoring visitors to the Kremlin in Moscow.
Mr Theremin never received any reward nor credit for his pioneering work, being sent on a lengthy tour of Europe and later the United States in 1927 to demonstrate the theremin, later staying in the United States.
Here, he not only worked to develop metal detectors for Alcatraz but also became a celebrity in his own right, becoming rather famous for his close professional relationship with early virtuoso Clara Rockmore, and his marriage to ballerina Lavinia Williams.
However, just as quickly as he had become a rather celebrated and controversial figure in the New York musical scene, he returned to the Soviet Union amidst a wave of conspiracy theories.
Depending on who was asked, he either got homesick, had tax issues in the USA or was kidnapped by the KGB. In any event, he was imprisoned, sent to the Gulags and worked for a secret laboratory that developed several listening devices that took years to find.
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