Shapeless Radio

Tu Zuochao’s Shapeless Radio
2009 reproduction based on 1930s invention
 On loan from Tu Zuochao Exhibition

One wire. That’s the difference between a secret communication device and a conventional radio—and possibly between life and death. See the thin wire in the back of this radio? When that electronic oscillator is in place, it’s a secret transmitter. Remove it, and it’s an ordinary music radio.

Radio engineer Tu Zuochao invented his “shapeless radio” in the 1930s at his undercover radio repair shop in Japanese-occupied China. As a young party member, he was sent to train as a spy and radio engineer in the USSR. He tested ways to make transmissions harder to detect, leading to his ingenious invention: a “shapeless radio” that could change instantly from ordinary receiver to secret transmitter.