Now an American company, Mine Safety Appliances, and a Siberian institute plan to sell that technology in the United States.
Pittsburgh-based Mine Safety said Wednesday it will form a joint venture with the Institute of Design Engineering to sell a briefcase-sized device that can detect the tiniest traces of explosives in about 10 seconds.
The institute is an affiliate of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Novosibirsk.
The venture is Mine Safety's first in bomb detection. The firm, founded in 1914, is the world's largest maker of gas masks and safety devices for workers.
It sees a potential for growth in U.S. sales of bomb detectors in the wake of the bombing of a federal office building in Oklahoma City and the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York.
Michael Hutchison, a senior investment analyst with Barrington Research Associates, said fear fanned by the Oklahoma City bombing will likely increase sales of bomb detectors, but it's hard to say by how much.
The biggest boost in sales would come if the Federal Aviation Administration required airports to install bomb detection systems, he said.
In the late 1980s, Russian scientists adapted KGB-funded research to develop the bomb detector, said Fred Tepper, vice president of MSA's instrument division.
The device detects explosives through gas chromatography, a process used for decades in laboratories to detect chemicals such as drugs in urine.
The older equipment is difficult to use outside the lab because it is bulky and can take 20 to 30 minutes to conduct a single analysis, the company said.
The Russian device weighs about 10 kilos and costs about $17,000.
The detector breaks down the components of an air sample by heating it and forcing it through hundreds of tiny tubes. It can pick up concentrations as low as 10 parts per trillion -- the equivalent of a single drop in a swimming pool -- and even can detect explosives on the hands of someone who shook hands with someone who handled the material, Tepper said.
The device can also detect illegal drugs, chemical warfare and environmental contaminants.
Eventually, it could be developed to work like metal detectors in airports, quickly screening people for explosives at the entrances to public places, Tepper said.
Some U.S. government agencies already have signed contracts for the device, and city transit systems have expressed an interest, Tepper said.
The device has been used to prevent terrorism in Russia for the last several years.
The detectors will be made here and sold and marketed in the United States by Mine Safety.
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