Spy Term of the Day:

Luminaire

Soviet cipher machine of the 1960s that was plugged into a radio receiver. The machine translated sound sig­nals into numbers that appeared on 10 small dials in the top of the machine. The numbers were an enciphered message that was solved by a one-time pad. The Lumi­naire was designed for agents who did not know Morse code or who needed to have a silent method of receiving messages.


Spy Speak Archive

Spy Book by Norman Polmar and Thomas B. Allen