METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DESTROYING MICROBIAL CONTAMINATION OF MAIL AND PAPER CURRENCY

摘要

A powder of Anthrax spores or other microbial contamination (20) in a series of conveyed flat objects (12) such as envelopes or banknotes are deactivated by pulses of energy. Preferably, the deactivation occurs in the normal processing and sorting of mail or paper currency. The pulsed energy is in th e form of low kinetic energy (under 500 keV) e- beams (24) or x-rays which are pulsed in coordination with the movement of mail in the mail handling equipment or the movement of banknotes into or out of an automatic teller machine (10). The treatment of either mail or currency is done under nearly adiabatic conditions.