Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!cuuxb!ltuxa!ll1a!nesac2!jec
From: jec@nesac2.UUCP (John Carter ATLN SADM)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Laptops and Airport Security
Summary: NOT the x-rays
Keywords: Laptop, X-rays
Message-ID: <935@nesac2.UUCP>
Date: 28 Jan 88 15:18:07 GMT
References: <4426@garfield.UUCP> <3056@killer.UUCP>
Organization: A.T.&T. Lisle, Ill.
Lines: 34
Posted: Thu Jan 28 10:18:07 1988

In article <3056@killer.UUCP>, wnp@killer.UUCP (Wolf Paul) writes:
> In article <4426@garfield.UUCP> martyn@garfield.UUCP (Martyn Quigley) writes:
] ] At Heathrow I asked for it to be hand-checked.  They told me
] ]"No x-ray, no travel".  Since there were 6 of them and they were all bigger
] ]than me, the computer duly went through the x-ray machine.
] ]
] ]The first thing I did when I got back home was power up the computer.  No
] ]problems at all, all files intact, boot proceeded normally etc.  Whew!
] 
] I did not understand it back when the discussion was going on, and I still 
] don't understand it:
] 
] What is there in a portable computer or in a box of floppy disks that is going
] to be harmed by X-Rays?
] 
] Can anyone enlighten me with scientific reasons for this panic?
] 
] What I am looking for is a scientific explanation of why X-Rays might damage
] a portable computer or other magnetic media.
] 
] Wolf Paul
] ihnp4!killer!wnp

The x-rays themselves do minimal damage to magnetic media.  However, the
MAGNETIC focusing used to control the x-ray beam has the _potential_
to do great harm to magnetic media.
There is always the _possibility_ of damage from x-rays to any solid
state device, although the usual concern is for gamma or other
higher energy radiation (as in 'hardened' chips for military
applications).
-- 
USnail: John Carter, AT&T, Atlanta RWC, 3001 Cobb Parkway, Atlanta GA 30339
Video:	...ihnp4!cuea2!ltuxa!ll1!nesac2!jec    Voice: 404+951-4642
(The above views are my very own. How dare you question them? :-)