when he was shot, Alexander Graham Bell showed up with a metal detector to try to locate the bullet

vaviper.blogspot.com ^ | 11/18/2017 | VA Viper

[harpygoddess]

Today is the anniversary of the birth of James A(bram) Garfield (1831-1881), 20th President of these United States, in Moreland Hills, Ohio. Born to a widowed farm wife, Garfield worked at a series of menial jobs but eventually attended Williams College, graduating in 1856.

He entered politics as a Republican and served in the Ohio State Senate until the outbreak of the Civil War, in which he saw combat as a Union major general. In 1862 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and served in that body until 1880, after 1876 as Republican Leader of the House.

Noted as a skilled orator, Garfield supported the more radical aspects of Reconstruction, but later moderated his views and became known for his strong support in Congress for the gold standard and free trade. His four-month administration, characterized by party squabbles over federal jobs and political patronage, was cut short by his fatal wounding by a disappointed office-seeker in Washington in July 1881

On July 2, 1881, at 9:20 a.m., James A. Garfield was shot in the back as he walked with Secretary of State Blaine in Washington's Baltimore and Potomac train station. The proud President was preparing to leave for Williams College—he planned to introduce his two sons to his alma mater. The shots came from a .44 British Bulldog, which the assassin, Charles J. Guiteau, had purchased specifically because he thought it would look impressive in a museum. Garfield's doctors were unable to remove the bullet, which was lodged in the President's pancreas. On September 19, 1881, the President died of blood poisoning and complications from the shooting in his hospital rooms at Elberon, a village on the New Jersey shore, where his wife lay ill with malaria.

[fella]

It was “ Destiny of the Republic”.

Thank you.

[hanamizu]

Watched a program on this. It claimed that Garfield’s physician would only let Bell scan where he, the doctor, thought the bullet might be, he did not allow bell to scan Garfield’s whole torso. It seemed that Garfield placed his complete trust in this particular doctor and basically told everyone the doctor’s advise and treatment were to be followed. And this doctor made some serious mistakes.

As to all of the probing. For a long time doctors had realized that if the bullet didn’t kill you, your clothing the bullet took with it in its journey into your could cause a deadly infection. The probing was to look both for the bullet and clothing scraps.

[morphing libertarian]

I believe the geiger counter kept hitting on the metal bed springs. If the assassin was being tried today he would be found guilty of a lesser offense by claiming the doctors and Bell killed the president. .

[AnonymousConservative]

Not necessarily.

I do not know if the effect would be sufficient, but if a compass’ magnetic needle gave off a sufficient magnetic field, and you moved it over a piece of conductive metal, the moving magnetic field would, through inductance, create a current “swirl” of moving electrons in the metal, regardless of magnetism. That swirl of current will produce a magnetic field of its own, exactly opposite to that of the inducing magnetic field, and that field will interact with the field of the needle, as if you were moving a magnet by it.

Any conductive metal, put in a moving magnetic field will do that.

A metal detector is actually producing a shifting magnetic field, to simulate a moving magnet, and measuring the counter-field produced by the inductance current in the metal you are detecting. That is why it can detect other, non-magnetic metals.

Never tried it with a compass though, but I suppose if the compass has a magnetic effect strong enough to detect iron, moving it would detect other metals.