Talk:Léon Theremin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Did Theremin therefore invent RFID ? Shyamal 08:32, 26 May 2004 (UTC)
- Quote from the RFID article: "Although some people think that the first known device may have been invented by Leon Theremin as an espionage tool for the Russian Government in 1945, the first real usage of RFID devices predates that." I guess he didn't. Jonathan Grynspan 23:13, 3 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Did he spend a good deal of time in France, or is there another reason his name was transliterated in a French way? (Rather than, say 'Leo Termen') Xyzzyva 16:11, 14 September 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Lavinia Williams—request for source
Guys, I recently created an article for Lavinia Williams, please see my note at Talk:Lavinia Williams. Does someone have an authoritative source confirming that she and Theremin were married before he was abducted by the KGB? A cursory internet search revealed the following:
- Pages devoted specifically to Lavinia Williams make no mention of Theremin.
- Pages about Theremin frequently mention that he was married to an African-American dancer before his abduction.
- Many of these pages give the dancer's name as Iavana Williams, but these all appear to have plagiarized from one another.
- Several pages copy the Wikipedia article along with its assertion that her name was "Lavinia Williams".
- Several pages tell the story and use the name "Lavinia Williams" and are not direct copies of Wikipedia. However, they mention her just for the purpose of telling the star-crossed love story, and I am concerned about the innate propensity for this story to propagate itself as an urban legend, given the remarkable circumstances involved (two people each very prominent in a different field, a marriage socially frowned upon, the KGB putting a stop to it!, both of them living for half a century after that but apparently never communicating).
- A web search for "Iavana Williams" returns only pages that mention her only because she married Theremin, only in pages that basically are copies of one another. I'm thinking it got mistranscribed somewhere and then plagiarized around.
If someone can get the real story, from a source that is not just the internet, then please contribute the story and reference to both the Theremin and Williams pages. I'd really like to know what actually happened. Thanks!
By the way, I actually never heard of Lavinia Williams until I read the Theremin article; it sparked my interest and now I've started an article on her (and she deserves one independently of this Theremin business). So: writers of this article, nice work!
EsdnePyaJ 14:59, 24 September 2006 (UTC)
- I'm pretty sure the 1994 documentary says they got married (I saw it last night). You should watch it if you haven't yet. --Cam 15:45, 2 November 2006 (UTC)
- Also in this 1989 interview he says they got married at the Soviet Consulate, though his memory is faulty on other matters so who knows. --Cam 16:57, 2 November 2006 (UTC)
