On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 11:13:00 +0100, nospam
wrote:

Paul Burridge wrote:

This must be a major embarrassment for the security services in
Britain.

Did it have "if found please return to MI5" stamped on it?

No, but probably "Property of HMG" which is near enough the same
thing. :-)

You don't know
who made or installed it.

A one-eyed apprentice carpenter, by the look of it. Get those big,
wobbly numbers in marker pen: 1,2,3,4,5,6 so they'd remember which
order the blocks were supposed to be connected up. :-)

"Party chairman Mitchel McLaughlin said it was a highly sophisticated
device with a large battery pack and the party had no idea how long it had
been in place."

Yeah, well he's Irish, isn't he, and probably thinks the electric
light bulb is "highly sophisticated." ;-

He and you apparently have no idea when it was installed so you have no
idea what the state of the art was when it was made.

The date stamp on the batteries ought to provide some clue. "Best
before January 1946" would be my guess. :-)
--

"What is now proved was once only imagin'd." - William Blake, 1793.