A few years ago, I went to see Dave Chappelle at Radio City Music Hall. I remember being told before the show that we weren’t allowed to bring our phones inside with us. Instead, as each person progressed through the line, ultimately arriving at the entrance of the building, they were asked to put their phone into a small gray pouch that was then tension locked. You kept the bag with you, but the only way to unlock it was to revisit a security guard equipped with a small metal disk able to break the tension. I remember being a little frustrated at first, but once I accepted it, and especially once the show started, I really didn’t mind because I was able to devote my entire attention to the what was happening on stage rather than recording it, or updating friends on the show. In this day in age, that’s actually a really rare experience.
Although these bags are not faraday cages, I tend to always think of the two together. Maybe because, on the simplest level, it has to do with blocked cell phone access. But Faraday bags are really something entirely different. And, as has been discussed on this blog before in previous posts, I’m a little bit paranoid when it comes to technology, security, and privacy. So when I was looking up Faraday bags, it dawned on me that there was a reason they sounded so familiar. And not because I hear about Faraday bags on the reg, but because I had heard of the scientist for whom the bags are named, Michael Faraday, a number of times before. Surprised that I hadn’t made this connection previously, I thought I’d take a deeper look.
Michael Faraday’s work was primarily during the first half of the 19th century. He started out as a chemist and physicist and his depth of knowledge in these two subjects led him to a great many discoveries. His first official scientific role was as an apprentice to Sir Humphrey Davy, an esteemed and prolific chemist of the day. As Faraday’s work blossomed under Davy he became something of a master in chemical analysis and laboratory technique.
Once he settled at the Royal Institution, he began to explore electricity and magnetism with great fervor. He believed that electricity was the result of a tension existing within a conductor, that it was a vibration, a force — and not some sustained material fluid like water, the popular opinion at the time. He theorized that “the electric force…threw the molecules of a solution into a state of tension (his [so-called] electronic state). When the force was strong enough to distort the fields of forces that held the molecules together so as to permit the interaction of these fields with neighboring particles, the tension was relieved by the migration of particles along the lines of tension, the different species of atoms migrating in opposite directions. The amount of electricity that passed, then, was clearly related to the chemical affinities of the substances in solution.” (https://www.britannica.com/)
I won’t go deeper into his conclusions, but suffice it to say he was truly a genius, well ahead of his time in terms of his approach to chemistry and physics, and a great influence on a number of scientific minds to follow. Faraday’s work is also omnipresent in everyday life of our modern world. Which brings me to Faraday bags, a subset of Faraday cages. Due to Faraday’s observation that electrical charges exist in relation to a conductor and that, given certain conditions, actually will not impact anything inside said conductor, a Faraday cage is an enclosure composed of electricity-blocking material. Instead, that current will be re-distributed along the exterior of the cage, thereby preventing the current from reaching the internal conductor and having any meaningful effect.
Considering modern telecommunication devices all rely on networks of wireless signals, a Faraday bag can be used to enclose these devices and prevent any incoming or outgoing signals to be received or transmitted. A wireless signal, after all, is a type of electric current that needs a conductor. These conductors can be cell phones, lap tops, iPads, etc. If a cell phone is put into a bag that is outwardly comprised of conductive metal and inwardly comprised of a non-conductive material (like plastic, cardboard, wood, or glass), then the signals attempting to be transmitted become isolated within that outer material, and prevented from passing to or from the device by the inner material.
So, if you’re nervous about your devices being hacked, or about being spied on by Russians, or simply preparing for the apocalypse, then a Faraday bag is a smart and effective utility to have. In fact, a journalist made sure to travel to Russia with a Faraday bag when he interviewed Edward Snowden for The Intercept in 2015, and it was what he used to carry his device to and from different locations during the duration of his stay in Moscow. Here’s a list of 2019’s top 7 Faraday bags (according to heavy.): https://heavy.com/tech/2019/04/faraday-bag/
Sources:
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Michael-Faraday
- https://geeknewsnetwork.net/week-geek-history-michael-faraday/
- https://micahflee.com/2015/11/some-thoughts-on-faraday-bags-and-operational-security/
- https://theintercept.com/2015/11/12/edward-snowden-explains-how-to-reclaim-your-privacy/
- https://science.howstuffworks.com/faraday-cage.htm
- https://www.forensicmag.com/article/2014/02/need-faraday-bag
- https://www.thesimpleprepper.com/prepper/essentials/should-preppers-have-a-faraday-bag/
- https://www.skilledsurvival.com/faraday-bag/
- https://www.skilledsurvival.com/faraday-cage/
- https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/07/05/483110284/lock-screen-at-these-music-shows-phones-go-in-a-pouch-and-dont-come-out
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/alicia-keys-is-done-playing-nice-your-phone-is-getting-locked-up-at-her-shows-now/2016/06/16/366c15aa-33af-11e6-95c0-2a6873031302_story.html
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