Talk:Artifact Auction/@comment-5782071-20170212062743/@comment-24588058-20170213185100

"The Thing", when I looked it up, was a Soviet-designed spy antennae (best description I can think of to describe it). They placed it into carved wooden plaque of the Great Seal of the United States and presented it as a gift to the U.S. on August 4, 1945as a gift to the U.S.S.R.'s wartime ally. It only became active when a radio-frequency of the correct wavelength was sent towards the device, and it had no power supply or active electrical components. Sound waves passed through the wood and caused the antennae to vibrate, which the device picked up as electromagnetic waves (called some weird word. Capacitance, I think?) and turned it into radio waves, it would transmit it to the receiver of the listener, which could be decoded to act just like a normal radio.

I don't think my description of how it works is very good, but Here's the article on Wikipedia to read for yourself.