It definitely IS customs B.S. The magnetometers are passive, they don't emit
anything harmful. I have one sitting right now in a box, outside my office
which hasn't been set up yet, and two hand-held detectors right here in my
office. We use them to 'search' everyone entering our municipal court. They
are much more sensitive than I would have thought before I started using
them. They will indeed pick up that 'one quarter down deep in the pants
pocket.' I don't recall the ones 25 or more years ago being this sensitive.
BTW- one of my jobs during college days was in the early days of airline
security, just before the introduction of the x-ray machines. We had a stand
alone metal detector, but nothing else. Every carry-on bag had to be placed
on a table in front of us, and we had to search throught each bag BY HAND.
You never knew what was waiting for you just under that item you would lift
and look under...I can still recall the durty laundry smells, yuck! If we
had a questionable item, such as needles and scissors in a sewing kit, we
would hold them in the air and our resident customs agent who was stationed
at our area would give us either a 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down' after he took
a long look at the person who owned the items. Grandmotherly-looking types
could get away with carrying anything .... Now we have agents tearing the
nail files out of airline pilots' nail clippers ... I'll never forget the
look on everyone's face when a guy strode purposefully thru the detector
carrying a suit on a hanger. I took it from him and patted the pocket areas
like we've done thousands of times before handing it back to him at the exit
end of the detector... but I noticed a hard object, reached in and pulled out
a .38 cal revolver! He was jumped on by so many security people I thought he
was going to look like a flattened cartoon character when they finally got
off of him.
George S.
> I think it was Customs BS.
>
> AS far as I know, metal detection works in the way it is used in submarine
> detection and for detecting cars to trigger traffic lights; loops of wire
> under /
> around that detect anything that carries residual magnetism (or responds to
> a magnetic field?)
>
>
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