Electronics: Snooperscope Television

The two men might easily have been mistaken for spies. In the damp night they parked their car carefully—down the road from one of the buildings of Lincoln Laboratory, the Lexington, Mass., research center that M.I.T. operates for the U.S. Government. Through the car window they sighted in on the lab with a snooperscope, a World War II device for spotting objects in the dark. And they saw just what they were looking for. "We're in!" exclaimed one of the men with ill-concealed excitement.

The two observers were stealing no secrets; they were checking on their own work. The bright gleam...

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