[marktwain]

Just an interesting technical note that I had not seen before. I thought it would be of interest to the banglist.

[VOA]

Once the officer was inside the MR suite, the gun was pulled from
his hand as he attempted to place the gun on top of a cabinet
3 ft (0.9 m) away from the magnet bore.

Reminds me of the History Channel's "Lost Worlds" series on
Oak Ridge TN.
(Hope I don't bungle the details of the following)
It was mentioned that in the early method of separating uranium
isotopes the devices used were a series of hugmongous electromagnets...
and that there was a painted line down the gallery of the machines
to remind people to not go any closer (3-4 ft?) to the magnets
unless they had ALL metal off their persons.

I think they said there were stories of forgetful technicians
getting pulled and stuck to the machines (until the clothing could
be cut away from the metal, such as a metal pen in the pocket).