Path: ...!weretis.net!feeder9.news.weretis.net!panix!.POSTED.panix3.panix.com!dannyb
From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: [yabid] a Man from U.N.C.L.E. book ques re: batteries...
Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2024 20:20:01 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC
Message-ID: <vcn9ph$gop$2@reader1.panix.com>
References: <Pine.NEB.4.64.2409211446180.11132@panix3.panix.com> <0o8uejt29o7qsigqeoks4tm4qhtj1u2o4q@4ax.com>
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In <0o8uejt29o7qsigqeoks4tm4qhtj1u2o4q@4ax.com> banjo@dontspam.silent.com writes:
[snip]
>>Napolean tells, umm, the tech guy... this wouldn't
>>work 'cuz the border agent would try turning it on.
>>
>>He replied that yes, the light would work, because
>>he had placed a small mercury cell (remember those?)
>>in the tip of the battery, and that would provide
>>enough power to set off the light.
>>
>>Sound at all familiar?  Thanks

>This is in The Rainbow Affair by David McDaniel.

>"This is designed for the smuggling of small valuable items past any
>customs system in the world. It looks like a torch cell, and is
>carried in a torch."
>"An old gag," said Illya. "If the flashlight doesn't work, they check
>the batteries."
>"So old no one would be likely to try it. Except that this one works.
>Built into one end is a 1-1/2 volt mercury cell. The body of the case
>is lead-shielded to protect film from fogging. Film, by the way, is
>always sent exposed but unprocessed. Unless the container is opened in
>a darkroom, the information is destroyed."

Thanks!

Now please do NOT tell me youhad this exchange
memorized from reading the novel over a half
century ago..

-- 
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
		     dannyb@panix.com 
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]