INVENTOR

Léon Theremin

1896 - 1993

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Lev Sergeyevich Termen (27 August [O.S. 15 August] 1896 – 3 November 1993), better known as Leon Theremin, was a Russian inventor, most famous for his invention of the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments and the first to be mass-produced. He also worked on early television research. His secret listening device, "The Thing", hung for seven years in plain view in the United States ambassador's Moscow office and enabled Soviet agents to secretly eavesdrop on conversations. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Léon Theremin is the 75th most popular inventor (up from 112th in 2019), the 245th most popular biography from Russia (up from 406th in 2019) and the most popular Russian Inventor.

Léon Theremin was a Russian scientist who invented the theremin, a musical instrument that is played without being touched. The theremin is played by moving one's hands near two metal antennas. The closer one's hand is to one antenna, the higher the pitch of the sound. The closer one's hand is to the other antenna, the lower the pitch of the sound.

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Among INVENTORS

Among inventors, Léon Theremin ranks 75 out of 426. Before him are Henry Fox Talbot, Josephine Cochrane, Les Paul, Ruth Handler, Claude Chappe, and George Eastman. After him are Jacques Piccard, James Naismith, John Browning, Alois Senefelder, Rowland Hill, and Charles K. Kao.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1896, Léon Theremin ranks 35. Before him are Donald Winnicott, Buenaventura Durruti, Anna Anderson, Ernst Udet, Erich Koch, and Sandro Pertini. After him are Oswald Mosley, Célestin Freinet, Wallace Carothers, Anastasio Somoza García, Lewis Strauss, and John Dos Passos. Among people deceased in 1993, Léon Theremin ranks 27. Before him are Brandon Lee, Kōbō Abe, Hans Jonas, Albert Sabin, Bill Bixby, and Lillian Gish. After him are Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Boris Christoff, Dizzy Gillespie, Cantinflas, and Salah Jadid.

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In Russia

Among people born in Russia, Léon Theremin ranks 245 out of 3,761. Before him are Aleksey Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1883), Aleksandr Dugin (1962), Daniel of Moscow (1261), Vladimir Vernadsky (1863), Dmitry Kabalevsky (1904), and Bruno Taut (1880). After him are Alexander Rodchenko (1891), Yermak Timofeyevich (1532), Vasily Stalin (1921), Ilia II of Georgia (1933), Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia (1857), and Natalia Goncharova (1881).

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Among INVENTORS In Russia

Among inventors born in Russia, Léon Theremin ranks 1. After him are Oleg Antonov (1906), Alexander Stepanovich Popov (1859), Vladimir K. Zworykin (1888), Nikolai Kardashev (1932), Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky (1862), Lucien Olivier (1838), Pavel Yablochkov (1847), Alexandre Alexeieff (1901), Oleg Losev (1903), Ivan Kulibin (1735), and Rostislav Alexeyev (1916).

Russian born Inventors

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