imagesSecurity has been a very important aspect in human activities from time immemorial. The idea of protecting one’s own environment dates back in the days when the world began. When population increased, people found the need to protect their lives and property. In those days, technology was a vocabulary and hence people could improvise ways and means of being secure whenever they were. As years passed, people became more intelligent and innovative to an extent of making fences and securing their closets.

In the 19th century, the world had become very much enlightened and technology was fast taking people by storm. Investments in science and technology was taking toll and engineers by then started putting together their knowledge and experiences in electrical theory to invest systems that could enhance surety operations and surveillance.  It is the 19th century that most of these engineers were looking at ways of finding a machine that had the ability to pinpoint a metal. The concept behind such a thought was that by devising such a machine, then it would be easier to detect items that people were hiding in the pockets and clothes with an aim of causing harm on their colleagues.

In this process, the engineers thought that getting a metal detector would also be very useful to miners. This device was to be used to identify precious metals in the ground so that mining would no longer be speculative. This would improve people’s economic activity in mining and enhance their productivity. Between 1803 and 1879, the search efforts bore some fruits: a German physicist by the name Wilhelm Dove came up with an induction balance. This system was tried, tested and found to have the capacity to detect and identify metals. This system, however, was not used until hundred years later when it was incorporated into metal detectors. The machines that were made and used those times were very crude and could not be as powerful as the present day machines.

The gadgets could consume a lot of power and were not very efficient. They could only function property within a limited range and for a short duration of time. Later on, in the year 1881, Alexander Graham Bell put this system into test. The American president James Garfield died of a bullet shot. Graham tried to use this device to detect the bullet that had been lodged into his chest. This process was very successful; however, there was one short coming: the metal detector was confused by the metal coil spring that was on the bed, which Garfield was lying on.

In the 1920, further developments were done on the detector. This was spearheaded by Gerhard Fisher, who tried to come up with radio direction-finding. It was thought that this addition would try to make the system to be more accurate and improve its efficiency. The system however was not very efficient since there were some anomalies in the areas that contained the metal ores in the ground. Kosacki made more developments on the metal detectors and this proved to solve some problems since it was widely used in the German mine fields

Manufacturers of metal detectors have since been trying to make the devices more and more effective. There has witnessed a shift in their functioning. Nowadays, metal detectors have been and continue to be widely used for security check points. Companies like PTI have been focussing on advanced metal detectors to out perform competitors. Walk in metal detectors have been developed for that matter.

It is good to point out that in the coming years,  more and more developments are bound to be added on these gadgets to make them more effective.