Patent ID: 7012525

Claim:
A sanitary security sock system for facilitating the screening of airline passengers in a secure, sanitary and efficient manner comprising, in combination: an entrance station for airline passengers to be screened for security purposes, the entrance station including a plurality of socks, each sock being fabricated of a tubular knit with a closed end and an open end with an intermediate extent there between, the closed end having a line of closure stitching positionable adjacent to a passenger's toes and the open end having an elastic band positionable around a passenger's ankle, each sock having an elastomeric pad fabricated of an elastomer selected from the class of elastomers including plastic and rubber, natural and synthetic, and blends thereof, the pad being of a generally rectangular configuration with a width less than half the intermediate extent and a length less than the length of the tubular knit and positioned closer to the closed end than to the open end, the pads each having an upper face in secure contact by adhesive to the intermediate extent of the tubular knit and a lower face with projections in rows and columns integrally formed with the pad for traction purposes, the socks being designated “one size fits all” and arranged in pairs, the entrance station also having a plurality of containers, with each container containing pairs of socks of a common size to be selected by a passenger to be screened; a metal detection station including opposed vertical plates adapted to detect metal there between and to generate a warning signal to an attendant upon a passenger walking between the plates if metal is on the passenger's person but to not generate a warning signal upon a passenger walking between the plates if no metal is on the passenger's person, the person walking between the plates adapted to remove his/her shoes prior to walking between the plates and to put on a pair of socks selected from a container of an appropriate size; an x-ray detection station including an x-ray camera and a plastic tray movable beneath the x-ray camera, the tray being adapted to receive a passenger's shoes after a passenger has removed his/her shoes and then selected a pair of socks and put them on his/her feet, the tray with the pair of shoes adapted to be fed beneath the x-ray camera for the detection of objects which might be a security risk while the passenger is walking between the plates; and an exit station including a trash basket for each passenger's pair of socks after each passenger has passed through the metal detection station while wearing socks and has had his/her shoes passed beneath the x-ray camera.