He learned that he could manipulate the pitch by the precise position and motion of his hands. He called his device the “etherphone,” known today as the theremin, an anglicized version of his name. The other app was a larger-scale version of this apparatus, one that was sensitive to movement within a radius of several meters. It was the first motion detector—sentry of the ether. He demonstrated both of these instruments at the Kremlin, playing his etherphone with abandon for Comrade Lenin. While Lenin delighted in the etherphone, he put the motion detector immediately to work in watching over
...more

