<story><title>ADE 651</title><url>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADE_651</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>lqet</author><text>This reads like an April&amp;#x27;s fool joke:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The ADE 651 consists of a swivelling antenna mounted via hinge to a plastic handgrip. It requires no battery or other power source; its manufacturer claimed that it is powered solely by the user&amp;#x27;s static electricity.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; After a substance-specific &amp;quot;programmed substance detection card&amp;quot; is inserted, the device is supposed to swivel in the user&amp;#x27;s hand to point its antenna in the direction of the target substance. The cards are claimed to be designed to &amp;quot;tune into&amp;quot; the &amp;quot;frequency&amp;quot; of a particular explosive or other substance named on the card&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; The cards were supposedly &amp;quot;programmed&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;activated&amp;quot; by being placed in a jar for a week along with a sample of the target substance to absorb the substance&amp;#x27;s &amp;quot;vapours&amp;quot;. Initially, McCormick reportedly used his own blood to &amp;quot;program&amp;quot; the cards for detecting human tissue&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; [McCormick] told The Times that ATSC had been dealing with doubters for ten years and that the device was merely being criticized because of its &amp;quot;primitive&amp;quot; appearance. He said: &amp;quot;We are working on a new model that has flashing lights.&amp;quot;</text></comment>
<story><title>ADE 651</title><url>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADE_651</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>tyingq</author><text>Hah! That&amp;#x27;s over the top brazen.  Like purposefully designing the scam device to not require a battery? And making it look&amp;#x2F;work just like a &amp;quot;dowsing rod&amp;quot;, which should raise suspicions?&lt;p&gt;Including a bit of fake circuitry seems like it would have made sales easier, though he seems to have sold plenty as-is.&lt;p&gt;It feels like he was trying to make a point about how stupid people can be.</text></comment>