What first comes to mind when one hears of the term metal detector is a geeky-looking person combing the beach with a space saucer-like gadget with a long metal broomstick or the go-through door at all airport entrances. And the thing is, both are actually true, these are two representations of what metal detectors are.
Putting it simply, a detector is a gadget that responds to any metal object that isn't easily seen. In a much technical manner, the simplest form of a metal detector is an oscillator and a coil producing an alternating magnetic field. With an oscilloscope, you can have a better view of the alternating current, which is what the oscillator passes on to the coil. And if this gadget is passed on to a piece of metal, currents will be pushed into the metal thereby producing an alternating magnetic field of its own and that is how it is being detected. The 1960s saw the advent of the very first metal detectors and they were used to detect minerals and other metal deposits in the mining industry. Other functions of the detector are the following location of land mines, discovery of hidden metallic weapons like guns and knives, archaeological finds, and treasure hunting. The detector was also utilized to detect foreign bodies in food for possible contamination and in detecting steel reinforcements in concrete walls and floors. The simplest metal detector consists of very few parts and it is lightweight. To keep the whole detector unit steady, one has to use the stabilizer and it keeps the unit in place while you sweep from right to left and vice versa. The control box contains all the circuitry of the whole gadget which includes batteries, the coil, and the microprocessor. The shaft has the controls for the whole metal detector gadget and it id oftentimes adjustable. The actual portion of the metal detector that senses the metal is called the search head or the search coil. For that more professional treasure hunter look, one can avail of a jack and headphones to be able to muffle and hear the metal detection. To use this is very simple and it's just like what you have seen on television. Once you turn the metal detector on, all you have to do is slowly sweep the area where you want to start detecting presence of metals.
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