WE INVENTED THEM !
WE INVENTED THEM !
In the 1970's I was working as an X-Ray project engineer at a company specialized in high voltage applications.
We must have been the first company to design this type of luggage control equipment. The X-Ray generator was pointing down from the top of the white box, and the image was formed on a fluoroscopic screen under the belt. A standard camera was looking at the fluo screen, and the final image appeared on a standard TV monitor.
With this pioneering equipment, you were warned not to leave any film cameras or films inside your luggage, because the X-Rays were "on" all the time.
In later versions, the image was obtained by short X-Ray pulse and recorded on a HDD, the capacity of which was 5 Mb, just enough to store 1 image and to be reset after each one. These later versions were film-safe.
As my colleagues knew that I was a modeller, I was asked to produce this 1/10 scale model for the Marketing Department.
I remember, as a child, the fun my brothers and I had, with a old but operational shoe-store fluoroscope. We did use "safe" (as practiced for the time) procedures, when we operated it. I would bet my oldest brother still has the quite large vacuum tube X-ray generator, in his stash of memorabilia. ;-)
ReplyDeleteOshi Shikigami
ReplyDeleteIn the 60's, I used a pierced X-Rays tube as the only "ambient" light source in my student's room. "Pierced" means that there was a microscopic hole in the glass, thus the vacuum was broken and the tube couldn't produce any more X-Rays. But the filament still worked fine and gave a very romantic subdued light. I tried to catch girls that way, but it never worked...
But you never invited me? LOL Just kidding ;-)
ReplyDeleteThat was a very interesting project and of course the model is perfect. At the time you never imagined what how this and other security equipment would evolve into what it is today. Wonderful and interesting post.
ReplyDeleteWow, I am impressed Laurent Truillet you got to work on some truly advanced projects back then.
ReplyDeleteLaurent Truillet they saw right through you...
ReplyDeleteJohn T : )
ReplyDelete