Spy Gadgets And The World's Second Oldest Profession
Spies claim that theirs is the second oldest profession, and basic espionage needs haven't changed: looking and listening, getting the information they need, and smuggling it back home.

Long before spy planes and satellites embarked upon aerial reconnaissance missions, ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu (whose classic Art of War contains more than 100 references to spies and intelligence-gathering) described how secret agents could be trained to analyze enemy movements.

"Dust spurting up in high straight columns indicates the approach of chariots. When it hangs low and widespread, infantry is approaching," he wrote. "When birds gather above the camp sites, they are empty."

And long before scientists knew how to reduce photographic images to the size of a printed period, American Revolutionary troops were relaying messages to one another using an invisible ink called Jay's Sympathetic Stain.

"Modern spy tools are faster, smaller, more accurate and more easily concealed," says Peter Earnest, a retired senior CIA official and the executive director of the International Spy Museum.  "But they're the same basic idea as the old ones."

Over the course of human history, some amazingly complex and imaginative tools have been created. Around 500 B.C., the Spartans invented a device called the "skytale" in order to transport hidden messages.

Skytales were long, slender rods which had been wrapped with a thin strip of papyrus, leather, or parchment. A message was written on the wrapping, and then the strip was unwound and passed on to a messenger (who often wore it as a belt). Only when it was rewound around a rod of the same diameter could the original message be deciphered.

In the late 15th century, Italian painter and polymath Leon Battista Alberti invented one of the first known mechanical devices for encoding messages.

His so-called cipher wheel was composed of two copper disks, one slightly smaller than the other, with the letters of the alphabet etched along their edges in random order. The smaller disk was overlaid on top of the larger disk, and the two were rotated until a particular letter on one disk lined up with a different letter on the other.


The 1903 Ben Akiba cane handle camera could take 20 exposures on a roll film when the shutter was released by pulling a knob below the handle. It was manufactured by A. Lehmann in Berlin, Germany and patented in England in 1902, in Germany in 1903 and a year later in the United States. It was not widely advertised, but did receive a notice in the Nov. 5, 1904 issue of the popular magazine Scientific America.

The Rochester, NY home of George Eastman, founder of the Eastman Kodak Company, includes an impressive museum of historic photography equipment including a French-manufactured, circa 1882 camera disguised as a revolver and a German-made, circa 1903 camera disguised in the handle of a walking stick.

Since the earliest days of espionage, but especially during WWI, homing pigeons have been a spy's best friend. Distinguished by their speed and ability to return home in any weather, pigeons carried precious, tiny cargo high above enemy lines. Pigeons outfitted with tiny cameras were released over military sites. As the birds flew, the cameras continuously clicked away, snapping pictures to be developed and interpreted when the pigeons reached their destination. (Courtesy of The International Spy Museum, www.SpyMuseum.org).

Explosive coal was used in sabotage operations by the United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during WWII. The device, shaped like a large piece of coal, was actually a hollow shell into which explosives were packed. Using the camouflage kit, the operative painted the device to match the local coal and then secretly deposited it into coal bins at ship or railroad yards. The camouflaged coal would detonate when burned in a locomotive's furnace or a factory boiler. (Courtesy of The International Spy Museum, www.SpyMuseum.org).

Subminiature cameras are very useful for gathering photographic intelligence, and many of them are built into an outer casing for concealment. The Steineck ABC camera, sold between 1948 and 1951, was made to resemble a wristwatch. Contemporary subminiature cameras are much smaller, of course, and many of them have gone digital. Subminiature video cameras are also gaining currency among today's spies; they can already be made smaller than a postage stamp, and some of them can even take pictures through the wearer's clothing.

This shoe transmitter was produced by the KGB in the 1960s during the Cold War to monitor secret conversations. A transmitter, microphone, and batteries were imbedded in the heel of a target's shoe. Someone close to the target (usually a maid or valet with access to the individual's clothing) would lay out the rigged shoes for the target and pull a white pin from the heel to activate the transmitter. The target would then become a walking radio station, transmitting all conversations to a nearby monitoring post. (Courtesy of The International Spy Museum, www.SpyMuseum.org).

Referred to as ”The Kiss of Death,” the lipstick pistol was employed by KGB operatives during the Cold War. This 1960s-era 4.5 mm single shot weapon was disguised as a tube of lipstick, easily hidden in a purse. The existence of such a weapon was first detected at a border crossing into West Berlin. (Courtesy of The International Spy Museum, www.SpyMuseum.org).

In the 1970s the KGB used small, lightweight F21 cameras for various methods of clandestine photography. Concealing the camera behind coat buttons proved very effective. The camera lens was hidden behind a false button on the front of the user's coat. When the remote shutter release was triggered, connected to the lens by a thin cable from a coat pocket, the center of the false button opened briefly to take the photograph. Spare buttons were provided to the user so that all the buttons on a coat could be replaced to match the false one. This concealment proved so successful, it remains in use today. (Courtesy of The International Spy Museum, www.SpyMuseum.org).

Created in the early 1970s by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a listening device disguised as a tree stump was placed in the woods near a Soviet military base to capture secret military radio transmissions. This device was solar powered and the exterior resembled tree bark. A satellite was used to extract the information contained in the stump. (Courtesy of The International Spy Museum, www.SpyMuseum.org).

Here is a stationary covert surveillance "StealthCam" built into a radio in the 1970's. As can be seen, the inner workings of the radio have been taken out to make room for a video camera and a hole drilled in the side so a VHS camcorder could be placed in it. Crude by today's standards since current StealthCams can be built into working clocks and clock radios without any visible lens and have motion activation, time and date stamping and digital video recorders, this unit was considered state-of-the-art for its time. This unit sold for what would be about $3,500 in todays dollars. (Photo Courtesy of the Ralph D. Thomas P.I. Vintage Collection, www.PImall.com)

Some resourceful and inventive private investigators who have become frustrated by the lack of commercially-available products to camouflage and conceal hidden surveillance cameras have been forced to rely upon their own handyman skills in the past to reproduce logs and rocks from different materials with varying degrees of success. Until the introduction of Spy Rocks and Spy Trees, no individual or company has been able to manufacture for the consumer market a product that is durable, affordable and realistic.

In January, 2006, Russia's internal security service accused four British Embassy employees of conducting a high-tech spying operation that included using an "advanced electronic spy gadget" in the form of a fake rock, news agencies reported.

"An electronic cache from the British intelligence service was seized by counterintelligence," Interfax quoted Federal Security Service (FSB) chief spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko as saying. Interfax reported that the FSB had found the "spy gadget" installed inside the fake rock and that the British agents used it to reach their Russian contacts.

The fake rock identified in the latest scandal is said to have been used as a drop for secret information, but with a high-tech upgrade. The hidden communication device allowed a Russian agent to covertly transmit classified data at a distance of more than 60 feet from handheld palm computers in bursts lasting no more than a second or two. Later, British agents walking nearby could upload the data to their own palm computer to be analyzed.

The accusations were first made public on state-run Rossiya television, and grainy images of an alleged British spy handling the rock were picked up for wider broadcast by the Euronews channel.

The FSB found a second such gadget and said the British had retrieved another, the Russian news agency reported. Interfax said a Russian citizen had been detained and had confessed to espionage after being recruited by British agents.

Hidden camera footage appeared to show individuals walking up to the rock by the side of a Moscow street, according to media reports. One man, allegedly a British diplomat, was seen on camera carrying the rock away. The rock appears to be about 10" L x 9" W x 8"H.

Prime Minister Tony Blair, answering questions at a news conference in London, declined to comment. "I'm afraid you are going to get the old stock in trade: "We never comment on security matters," except when we want to, obviously," Mr. Blair said."



This mini camera hidden in a traditional Zippo brand lighter case has a modern twist thanks to new technologies that allow it to take high-resolution photos with an 8 MB integrated memory capable of storing up to 310 pictures depending on the desired resolution quality setting.

It can even record a maximum of 12 minutes of audio or 30 seconds of video. In "surveillance mode," it can be set to independently take photos at preset intervals. If taking a photo every 90 minutes, for example, the AAA battery will last for 19 days. Amazing, huh?



Based in San Francisco, Calif., the renowned International Spy Shop (www.InternationalSpyShop.com) offers consumers a variety of state-of-the-art personal protection products as well as customized video security systems and digital video motion recording devices which are hidden inside unassuming everyday items such as a stuffed animal, a book on a shelf, artificial plant and wall clock.

There's no shortage of "world's smallest camcorders," but Spy Gadget's Micro Camcorder is definitely one of the most diminutive available today. Designed to actually slip inside an empty pack of gum, this device features a "one touch record button," captures video (at a less-than-stellar 15 frames per second), holds footage on a microSD card, and can be recharged via USB.
Click On Image Above to View Various Spy Gadgets From The Past

Messages could then be written and decoded with ease by simply substituting the appropriate letter on the other disk. A more sophisticated version of Alberti's cipher wheel was still being used 400 years later during the American Civil War.

Recently, more attention has been paid to the development of unmanned spy planes, satellites and electronic surveillance than to the efforts of human agents.

But with the Cold War over and security threats less clearly defined, the individual spy is still a crucial in determining what the enemy is really thinking. And as long as they are still on the ground, they're going to need those nifty James Bond gadgets.

(Article Courtesy of Forbes.com)