The UK's lead-lined briefcases 

As someone who spent too much time watching Yes Minister and seeing how the boxes worked, one half of this question was easy, the other was heavy.

There was an incident in world war 1 (battle off Texel) where a German ship tried to dispose of its codebooks by tossing them overboard in a lead lined container... unfortunately for the Germans the container was waterproof and a British trawler was able to retrieve it afterwards.

It's interesting just how quickly sea travel has been forgotten when major diplomatic missions would have travelled by ocean liner well into the 1950s.

"You can just bludgeon..." Tom, with the briefcase, in the sitting room!

1. You can absolutely have an x-ray imaging without a backing plate (it's called backscater x-ray), Ben Krasnow over at Applied Science channel made one in his garage. Some airport people scanners work like that. 2. For a very long time, iron-based black ink was very popular, so a CT scan (or MRI) can be used to read text. I have read a paper on using a CT scanner to study ancient texts, too fragile to be opened up. Even some typewriter ribbons use iron gall ink, not to mention fountain pens. I recall a story (or an urban legend) of a book recovered from typewriter tape (rolled in it's cartrige) using a CT or MRI.

I always thought the handle-on-the-hinge-side feature was so that the underling could place the case on the bigwig's desk and it would already be facing the right way for the bigwig to open it. Sort of like handing someone a tool with the handle towards them. It seems to me that describing the case as "lead-lined" was deceptively specific, since to make the case sink in water it just needs to be weighted (ballasted). It is not necessary for the lead to encompass (most of) the surface, which is sort of what "lining" implies.

I was thinking much more modern, like the lead made the case bulletproof in the event of an attack or something! That's incredibly interesting!!

The hinge handle thing is quite wacky. I figured on the easy method to prevent users from forgetting to lock it - exclude any basic latching mechanism. No latch, just a lock, hold the thing closed by the hasp. Forget to lock the case, it flops right open, makes a mess, and makes you look silly. I guess in combination with a hinge handle that'd work to great effect, but if it closes with a latch, a hinge handle won't work out unless the latch alone is kinda weak.

Took me forever to get to the weight making it dense enough to sink, but I did get there before them! Also, my first idea for "can't forget to lock it" was that the key was simply captive in the lock, so you simply couldn't remove your key without locking the box up properly (there are locks that do this). Having it open on the bottom (because the edge with the handle is the top as it's being carried, of course) seems like a recipe for "secret documents scattered everywhere, being seen by people without clearance"...!

it's a LID, Tom. It's the briefcase lid.

The reasoning for the lead lining is so obvious that it hurts that I couldn't figure it out. Like, their whole thing for the longest time was ships. Of course they'd figure out to design briefcases for important documents to sink in a shipwreck.

Xrays, much as Terrahertz scanners at modern airports do not necessarily need a receiver at the other side. Backscatter scanning is fairly standard tech by now, and in fact passive see-through Terrahertz scanners at airports don't even have an emitter, leveraging background radiation.

Fabulous. 😊 And I just love seeing how Tom's mind works; it's a thing of joy!

My guesses re: lead lining were a) since it's lead-lined, the airlines won't let you check it, forcing you to carry it on, or b) so nobody can easily tell empty from full ones by the weight.

Really interesting to learn!

If you look closely at the Chancellor's Red Box that they hold up on Budget Day, you can see the handle is on the hinged side

At school we had a glockenspiel that was inside a briefcase, but the hinges had gone. So if you picked it up by the handle, it would swing open and a shower of metal keys would fall to the ground with a loud melodious clatter. You then were left with a jigsaw of identical looking pieces to shove back into place before your call came, and hope the right notes were where they were supposed to be.

Great question!

More Julian and Tibees please

My grandfather served in the Marine Corps in WWII and he was working in New Caledonia. He was a bit older than the average Marine recruit, and he was a natural leader. Though it was not remotely related to his normal job he was assigned to hand deliver documents to HQ in San Diego. Once the delivery was made he was given 24 hours leave to visit his wife. My dad showed up 24 hours after he returned to New Caledonia.

"The flap is very heavy" - Tom Scott 2023

The "rabbit is the secret paperwork" is basically just photos of Jimmy Carter being attacked by a swamp rabbit.

I was envisioning a far more rube goldberg design where the handle retracted into the briefcase when you unlocked it, and wouldn't extend until you'd locked it again.

that is really interesting!

I was thinking along the lines of that they were using lead as a sealant because if the briefcase would drop into the water, it wouldn't damage the document because they used lead sealant.

“The flap is very heavy.” Ooer missus? 😂

So good to see my favourite British RU-vidr , Tom, in the same piece as my fave Aussie RU-vidr, Julian. Bonus!

"Don't tell him, Pike!"

an Xray technique is used to evaluate historic paintings looking for features and details hidden by the top layers of paint. it is possible to find hidden inscriptions and overpainted original design

I got the lock part almost immediately but the lead I just couldn't think of the lead bit

I thought the lead was to disrupt wireless signals from cellphones or computers.

The papers burn up without the proper pass code.

I feel like they covered a clue in a much older question, London used to have much fewer bridges? They were harder to build in the past. I would call the lid of a brief case the... lid as Tom clearly did when he stopped questioning himself :p

And these days they use a park bench..... 😆

I was thinking about buoyancy and it automatically sinking in case of an emergency pretty fairly early on, for once I’m impressed with myself.

I thought of ships and throwing the briefcase overboard and ensuring it sinks a good minute before Tom and the other two thought of it. I think they went through every transportation mode except for ships.

I've just realized, watching few of these, Toby, doesn't have a greenscreen. That's a wallpaper. An actually interesting background. (I think!)

Well I knew red boxes opened on the "wrong" side, but it never occurred to me to wonder why. Doh.

My brain was going to "If you try to lift (and carry) it *unlocked* , the papers inside will just disappear straight down into the shredder under the office desk."

Yet civil servants and MPs still manage to leave important documents on trains all the time, so maybe the technology needs updating for the modern day.

8:49 dude i thought it was a notification

I thought the lid was just so heavy that you need to hold it open. And when you let go of the lid, it falls down and automatically closes somehow

Me when they all started listin off every kind of transport except the obvs one here; "Boats! Its frackin boats, ppl!" I didnt know why it was boats, hadnt thowt that far ahead to get to sinkin in the Thames, but i knew it had to be boats bcuz old style transport that makes the most sense for travelin the furthest distances; so someone inevitably is gonna end up on them

Toby has really cool hair. Also she teaches science, which is super badass.

Took me until eight minutes and the mention of various modes of transport predating cars to figure it out. It should have been so bloody obvious.

the lead is to add flavour

There’s some confusion here brought on by terminology. Technically, a “briefcase” is soft-sided leather, stands upright with the handle at the top, and does, indeed, have a soft “flap” closure. What they’re talking about is a hard-sided *attache* case, which you set down on its side, to open its “lid”.

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4:05 the guy that looks suspiciously like a time traveling young George Lucas thinking about Indiana Jones? 😛

0:28 Lining with lead seems somewhat pointless and gimmicky, unless it's to be able to transport slightly radioactive elements without detection? I would think there are several other materials that are sufficiently dense without being as heavy as lead to prevent shining through it with visible light; and presumably if "bad guys" have access to the boxes for long enough to use high resolution x-ray machines or CT scanners to try to read a document that way; it's probably much quicker to break it open anyway. Besides it would have to be random lead "shrapnel" rather than a conventional flat uniform radiation shielding for it to block high powered X-rays; since as long as what you're imaging isn't alive; you can just increase the power or exposure time to see through a uniform layer of lead. A fairly straight forward design feature to avoid forgetting to lock them could be one or more of: a rather big and obvious key that isn't removable when the case is unlocked and no way to snap it shut without the key (just like most padlocks); a lid that doesn't stay shut unless locked; if it's really a briefcase with a handle: a handle that only stays on when locked.

Um, actually, a Herculaneum scroll was recently read using X-ray imaging.

The word in French is "manteau".

8:32 tom said "Ferries" though I think "wherries" is more appropriate

Not locking those briefcases would lead to a lot of meet cutes

I though they were design to carry Madam Curie's radioactive notes on radioactive elements.

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Who writes these questions?

I'll make my guess right away after the question was asked... They were transporting film/photographs which are vulnerable to even the slightest amount of radiation But i have no clue why it would definitely need to be locked 🤔 EDIT: Yeah...i was completely off the mark 😂

2:43 Nah, that's what their henchmen are for

X-rays are just like light, but we have not evolved the ability to detect x-ray light, mainly because the air is not transparent to x-rays so there are very few x-rays at the surface. Also X-rays are harmful to biology. We can see the spectrum we call visible light as that is what is useful to us. Some animals can see into the ultra violet, but these are all animals that have short lives. Animals that will be using their eyes for years need to protect their eyes from UV. We can't see infrared because our eyes are hot compared to the environment. IR cameras can only see what is warmer than the camera.

I do love simple design ideas that solve something even the brightest people might get stuck on for a long time. ... ... if you want the briefcase to open when you lift it if you forget to lock it: put the handle on the same side as the hinge. Gorgeous sollution!

6:50 'The handles on the same side as the hinge' makes no sense, a hinge by definition must be on both sides.