Metal detector


A metal detector is an instrument that detects the nearby presence of metal. Metal detectors are useful for finding metal objects on the surface, underground, and under water. A metal detector typically consists of a control box, an adjustable shaft, and a variable-shaped pickup coil. When the coil nears metal, the control box signals its presence with a tone, numerical reading, light, or needle movement. Signal intensity typically increases with proximity or metal size and composition. A common type are stationary "walk through" metal detectors used at access points in prisons, courthouses, airports and psychiatric hospitals to detect concealed metal weapons on a person's body.
The simplest form of a metal detector consists of an oscillator producing an alternating current that passes through a coil producing an alternating magnetic field. If a piece of electrically conductive metal is close to the coil, eddy currents will be induced in the metal, and this produces a magnetic field of its own. If another coil is used to measure the magnetic field, the change in the magnetic field due to the metallic object can be detected.
The first industrial metal detectors came out in the 1960s, and were used for finding minerals, among other things. Metal detectors help find land mines. They also detect weapons like knives and guns, which is important for airport security. People most commonly use them to search for buried objects, like in archaeology and treasure hunting. Metal detectors are also used to detect foreign bodies in food, and in the construction industry to detect steel reinforcing bars in concrete and pipes and wires buried in walls and floors.

History and development

First idea

The first metal detector was likely the simple electric conduction metal detector ca. 1830. Electric conduction was also used to locate metal ore bodies by measuring the conductivity between metal rods driven into the ground.
In 1841, Professor Heinrich Wilhelm Dove published an invention he called the "differential inductor". It was a 4-coil induction balance, with 2 glass tubes each having 2 well-insulated copper wire solenoids wound around them. Charged Leyden jars were discharged through the 2 primary coils; this current surge induced a voltage in the secondary coils. When the secondary coils were wired in opposition, the induced voltages cancelled as confirmed by the Professor holding the ends of the secondary coils. When a piece of metal was placed inside one glass tube the Professor received a shock. This then was the first magnetic induction metal detector, and the first pulse induction metal detector.
In 1862, Italian General Giuseppe Garibaldi was wounded in the foot. It was difficult to distinguish between bullet, bone, and cartilage. So Professor Favre of Marseilles quickly built a simple probe that was inserted into the track of the bullet. It had two sharp points connected to a battery and a bell. Contact with metal completed the circuit and rang the bell. In 1867, Mr. Sylvan de Wilde had a similar detector and an extractor also wired to a bell.
In 1870, Gustave Trouvé, a French electrical engineer also had a similar device however his buzzer made a different sound for lead and iron.
The electric bullet locators were in use until the advent of X-rays.
In late 1878 and early 1879, Professor David Edward Hughes published his experiments with the 4-coil induction balance. He used his own recent invention the microphone and a ticking clock to generate regular pulses and a telephone receiver as detector. To measure the strength of the signals he invented a coaxial 3-coil induction balance which he called the "electric sonometer". Hughes did much to popularize the induction balance, quickly leading to practical devices that could identify counterfeit coins. In 1880 Mr. J. Munro, C.E. suggested the use of the 4-coil induction balance for metal prospecting. Hughes's coaxial 3-coil induction balance would also see use in metal detecting.
In July 1881, Alexander Graham Bell initially used a 4-coil induction balance to attempt to locate a bullet lodged in the chest of American President James Garfield. After much experimenting the best bullet detection range he achieved was only 2 inches. He then used his own earlier discovery, the partially overlapping 2-coil induction balance, and the detection range increased to 5 inches. But the attempt was still unsuccessful because the metal coil spring bed Garfield was lying on confused the detector. Bell's 2-coil induction balance would go on to evolve into the popular double D coil.
On December 16, 1881, Captain Charles Ambrose McEvoy applied for British Patent No. 5518, Apparatus for Searching for Submerged Torpedoes, &c., which was granted Jun 16 1882. His US269439 patent application of Jul 12 1882 was granted Dec 19 1882. It was a 4-coil induction balance for detecting submerged metallic torpedoes and iron ships and the like. Given the development time involved this may have been the earliest known device specifically constructed as a metal detector using magnetic induction.
In 1892, George M. Hopkins described an orthogonal 2-coil induction balance for metal detecting.
In 1915, Professor Camille Gutton developed a 4-coil induction balance to detect unexploded shells in farmland of former battlefields in France. Unusually both coil pairs were used for detection. The 1919 photo at the right is a later version of Gutton's detector.

Modern developments

The modern development of the metal detector began in the 1920s. Gerhard Fischer had developed a system of radio direction-finding, which was to be used for accurate navigation. The system worked extremely well, but Fischer noticed there were anomalies in areas where the terrain contained ore-bearing rocks. He reasoned that if a radio beam could be distorted by metal, then it should be possible to design a machine which would detect metal using a search coil resonating at a radio frequency. In 1925 he applied for, and was granted, the first patent for an electronic metal detector. Although Gerhard Fischer was the first person granted a patent for an electronic metal detector, the first to apply was Shirl Herr, a businessman from Crawfordsville, Indiana. His application for a hand-held Hidden-Metal Detector was filed in February 1924, but not patented until July 1928. Herr assisted Italian leader Benito Mussolini in recovering items remaining from the Emperor Caligula's galleys at the bottom of Lake Nemi, Italy, in August 1929. Herr's invention was used by Admiral Richard Byrd's Second Antarctic Expedition in 1933, when it was used to locate objects left behind by earlier explorers. It was effective up to a depth of eight feet.
However, it was one Lieutenant Józef Stanisław Kosacki, a Polish officer attached to a unit stationed in St Andrews, Scotland, during the early years of World War II, who refined the design into a practical Polish mine detector.
These units were still quite heavy, as they ran on vacuum tubes, and needed separate battery packs.
The design invented by Kosacki was used extensively during the Second Battle of El Alamein when 500 units were shipped to Field Marshal Montgomery to clear the minefields of the retreating Germans, and later used during the Allied invasion of Sicily, the Allied invasion of Italy and the Invasion of Normandy.
As the creation and refinement of the device was a wartime military research operation, the knowledge that Kosacki created the first practical metal detector was kept secret for over 50 years.

Beat frequency induction

Many manufacturers of these new devices brought their own ideas to the market. White's Electronics of Oregon began in the 1950s by building a machine called the Oremaster Geiger Counter. Another leader in detector technology was Charles Garrett, who pioneered the BFO machine. With the invention and development of the transistor in the 1950s and 1960s, metal detector manufacturers and designers made smaller, lighter machines with improved circuitry, running on small battery packs. Companies sprang up all over the United States and Britain to supply the growing demand. Beat Frequency Induction requires movement of the detector coil; akin to how swinging a conductor near a magnet induces an electric current.

Refinements

Modern top models are fully computerized, using integrated circuit technology to allow the user to set sensitivity, discrimination, track speed, threshold volume, notch filters, etc., and hold these parameters in memory for future use. Compared to just a decade ago, detectors are lighter, deeper-seeking, use less battery power, and discriminate better.
State-of-the-art metal detectors have further incorporated extensive wireless technologies for the earphones, connect to Wi-Fi networks and Bluetooth devices. Some also utilize built in GPS locator technology to keep track of searching location and the location of items found. Some connect to smartphone applications to further extend functionality.

Discriminators

The biggest technical change in detectors was the development of a tunable induction system. This system involved two coils that are electro-magnetically tuned. One coil acts as an RF transmitter, the other as a receiver; in some cases these can be tuned to between 3 and 100 kHz. When metal is in their vicinity, a signal is detected owing to eddy currents induced in the metal. What allowed detectors to discriminate between metals was that every metal has a different phase response when exposed to alternating current: longer waves penetrate deeper into the ground, and select for high-conductivity targets like silver and copper; shorter waves are less ground-penetrating, and select for low-conductivity targets like iron. Unfortunately, high frequency is also sensitive to ground mineralization interference. This selectivity or discrimination allowed detectors to be developed that could selectively detect desirable metals, while ignoring undesirable ones.
Even with discriminators, it was still a challenge to avoid undesirable metals, because some of them have similar phase responses, particularly in alloy form. Thus, improperly tuning out certain metals increased the risk of passing over a valuable find. Another disadvantage of discriminators was that they reduced the sensitivity of the machines.