Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1902 — Smugglers Trapped by X-Ray. [ARTICLE]

Smugglers Trapped by X-Ray.

“So far as I have heard,” said a man who got back from South America recently, “the newest practical application of the X-rays has been made by the postoffice authorities at Buenos Ayres. They have turned it into a government detective, and a valuable one it makes, too. "It is against the law in the Argentine Republic to open registered mail to examine the contents, and jewelers have taken advantage of the fact to smuggle jewels into the country in registered letters and packages on a large scale. “The authorities knew that the smuggling was being done, but there seemed absolutely no way of stopping it short of repealing the law concerning registered mail, and that would have been difficult. “When they were at their wits’ ends one day somebody thought of the Xray, says the New York Sun. An experimental apparatus was installed in short order, and just as was expected, it revealed watches, chains, rings, gems and all sorts of jewelry in registered mail in astonishing quantities. “Such evidence was, of course, sufficient for a court order to open the packages, and during a single one of the first weeks that the plan was tried more than $20,000 worth of property was confiscated. “An X-ray machine is now a feature of every postoffice in the country that receives foreign mail, and registeredletter smuggling is as dead as Moses.” The heart that sings, wings itself to heaven.