airport x-ray machines: can they damage 8" floppies?

[Doc Shipley]

Grant Stockly wrote:
> 
>> I have heard that what is in use internationally will damage them.  
>> The power supply magnetics is what I was told is what is the real 
>> hazard not the xrays.  I would not risk irreplacable media finding out 
>> anyway.
>>
>> I am looking for a way to ship 8" floppies internationally if anyone 
>> has done so successfully.  quantity is large and all are one of a kind 
>> that cannot be duplicted at this time by any normal means.
> 
> The average airport system is running at around 120kV .5mA.  About 
> 120-170w power supply...
> 
> I would imagine that its a motor in the conveyor belt doing it.  A lot 
> of those tubes are built using a monoblock construction (the transformer 
> is integrated) to save money.  So the transformer is a few feet above 
> the belt.  Dental units are built this way...
> 
> I don't know if the security systems use them, but there are conveyor 
> rollers with motors built right in.  A motor like that would be 
> extremely close to the belt.
> 
> Of course I have no idea what's going on outside of the U.S...but its 
> probably the same.
> 
> See if you can hand carry the disks through the metal detector.  Or put 
> them on top of your coat when you run it through.

   US policy has a provision for carrying fast film through instead of 
running it through the xray.

   I fly pretty often, and sometimes with odd toys.  I've had good luck 
calling the local TSA office and just telling them what I'm carrying and 
why I want special handling.  (I suspect that if the item was a large 
block of Silly Putty with wires and batteries, they wouldn't be so 
understanding!)

   Caveat:  Expect to get The Full Treatment anytime you bypass xray 
with any item.

Ob WayOffTopic:
   Although this hass just nearly been 10 years - when I first started 
teaching for IBM only a few of the courses had gone to screen projector 
presentation.  Most still used overhead projectors and transparencies. 
Even after screen projectors started catching on, I had to carry the 
transparencies "just in case".  A week's worth of presentation is a 
stack between 75mm and 125mm.

   Even before 11/2001, airport security made me do the explosives swab 
test *every time* I went through, and searched my bags about 1 in 3 
times.  I finally asked one of the local security guys - who knew me by 
name by then - why I kept getting tagged.  He grinned and thumped that 
stack of transparencies and said "I dunno what this stuff is made of, 
but under the scope it looks JUST LIKE plastic explosive.  You're giving 
us all heart attacks."


	Doc