566
South African diamond miner being x-rayed at the end of his shift to prevent theft, 1954
(lemmy.world)
this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2023
566 points (98.3% liked)
HistoryPorn
7318 readers
3 users here now
COMM MOVED TO !historyphotos@piefed.social
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I do wonder whether this was actually an effective way to look for them. Even with modern high resolution x-ray imaging it may be difficult to see the contrast between soft tissues and diamonds since they're both primarily carbon
bones show up well since they're high in calcium, which has a much higher atomic number. Same with gold.
I mean if everyone tells you "we have a machine that can see through skin and can check if you have hidden diamonds" that would probably stop any attempts at theft that way. Even if it doesn't actually see them. Also, diamonds out of the mine would be uncut, and probably easier to see.
same thing with the TSA
Correct. Both are "security theater".
That's after the diamond has been cut. Raw diamond would be mostly encased in rock which would display differently
Wow I didn't see the ring at first and I thought it was a circle to point out things
me too. I spent a stupid amount of time zooming in to see contrast.
You do realize the mine has lots of diamonds they could test with?
Sure man. You go stand in the beam with a sack of diamonds up your butt and we'll watch
That's not my point. People running the mine could easily check if raw diamonds interact with X-rays.