Further useful information

[sholio]

In further news about relevant and useful accessories for anyone's life that can be had on Ebay, it turns out you can buy just about any type of actual vintage spy gear you can think of. (Except, probably, weapons. I didn't try looking that up.) I guess it's not surprising that you can easily buy these things now, since anyone with a cell phone has access to camera and recording technology that 1950s spies could only dream of.

Still, there are all the tiny 1950s-era spy cameras you could want (affordably priced, too!), as well as weirder stuff like phone tapping equipment, a reel-to-reel tape recorder hidden in a fake book (not well hidden, since it says "recorder" on it - or maybe that's just the case and it's sized to fit in a book?), and a $1500 clandestine wire recording setup including a microphone hidden in an actually very convincing fake watch. (Edit: or how about a $4800 working recorder + microphone hidden in a doctor's bag complete with fake instruments.)

Comments

[philomytha]

Miniature cameras for everyone! I love the fake book, which I guess would be more subtle if you put a dust jacket on it. And the doctor’s bag!

There must be a museum or two with these kinds of things on display. I remember going to Beaulieu and as well as the motor museum, it was SOE headquarters during the war and they had some excellent displays of escaping equipment and suitcase radios and so forth.

[sholio]

That sounds amazing and fun! I do know there is a spy gadget museum in Washington DC that I've always kind of wanted to go to. (And now even more so.)

Edit: Also, EvS definitely needs a cane with something hidden inside it. In my eBay perusings I found one with a whole entire telescope and also this particularly EvS-looking silver-headed one from 1917 with some kind of hidden glass gadget (magnifying glass?). Or it could just have a regular sword in it, of course. :D (Yes, I am determined to give him a sword somehow.)

[philomytha]

EvS must have a swordstick at some point! Actually, one of his canes in Flies East was probably a swordstick, I'm sure that would have appealed to him.

I got a wonderful book for Christmas, a modern edition of the original SOE handbook, which I must write up properly for DW, it has lots of detailed advice about how to disguise yourself, how to wear a fake moustache, how to hide things inside toothpaste tubes, and of course chapters and chapters of information about propaganda, how to conduct sabotage and how to blow up train lines...

[sholio]

Oh, that's amazing! I may perhaps have to get that myself. :D I was going to say that I thought I might already have it, dating back to my Agent Carter fandom days, but consulting my bookshelf, it turns out the one I have is the OSS weapons manual (the American version of the SOE). But that sounds *quite* relevant to my current writing ...

[philomytha]

It is great. The Secret Agent's Pocket Manual, from the Imperial War Museum. Here is an excellent illustration from it:

[anna_wing]

I want this one. Swaine & Adeney umbrella swordstick.

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/bishopandmiller/catalogue-id-bishop10102/lot-767336e9-0bf3-4327-aec5-aaa9011ddcfb

[anna_wing]

I recall this stupendous shop once offering a genuine Enigma Model K, the Swiss Army version of the Enigma machine, for sale. It was well beyond my budget, but I was for a moment Seriously Tempted.

https://www.grand-illusions.com/


The shop itself continues to be fun. One of my best Christmas presents from there was this pseudoscope kit.

https://www.grand-illusions.com/pseudoscope-kit-c2x24321039

[sholio]

You can BUY those?? I googled it out of curiosity just now and found one for sale at Christie's for the low low price of only £182,500. Definitely beyond my budget! But that looks like a really neat shop.

[philomytha]

LOL, that's a bit of a bump from the price of 100 cigarettes, which was the going rate if you knew a guy in Berlin in July 1945...

[anna_wing]

It is! It's been a great source of presents over the years. They used to do fabulous Christmas boxes, with a random assortment of games and toys.

They were selling the Enigma-K for a mere £30,000, I think, but that was more than a decade ago.

[yalumesse]

...I'm so glad that EBay is US-centric and the shipping would be so stupid as to deter me from ever going there.

So what are you tempted to get?

[sholio]

HOPEFULLY NOTHING. *clings to willpower*

I'm dreadfully tempted by a tiny camera though.

[yalumesse]

It's very pretty! Probably doesn't work. No point getting it!

[lunabee34]

I love it!

[trobadora]

Oh, this is super neat, thank you for sharing!

[leesa_perrie]

It's amazing (and cool) what you can get on eBay! :D

[osprey_archer]

Oh, that is so cool!

[calandrahunter]

"not well hidden, since it says "recorder" on it"

An amazing double bluff, though! 'Surely that cannot have a secret recorder in it,' they think, 'after all, it says recorder'.