Word: pickings
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...wireless unit that can be hidden in a car to pick up conversation as well as to record and transmit signals reporting the starts, stops and changes of direction; the signals are picked up by another car following several blocks behind...
...shotgun" microphone that can be aimed at a point up to several hundred yards away, pick up even a hushed conversation. Fair game: conversations in a nearby house, a skyscraper across the street, a boat on a lake. Best protection against the shotgun: talk behind closed windows...
...Pocket microphone and recorder units so tiny and effective that they may be operated undetected in an ordinary briefcase; e.g., a private eye could plant the briefcase in a conference room, pick it up at the end of the day and listen to as much as five hours of tape transcription...
...called wireless microphones packed into transmitters no bigger than a pack of cigarettes and so sensitive that they can pick up whispers in an average room, transmit them by radio to receiving and recording equipment hundreds of feet away. The wireless mike can operate as long as four days without running down...
...learned that some companies employ the devices to listen in on what their employees are saying in rest rooms, company dining rooms and elsewhere in the plant. In Los Angeles some used-car dealers bug rooms where prospective car purchasers are left with their wives; thus the salesman can pick up tips for a new pitch by listening to the family discussion of who likes what and how much the family budget will stand...