In _Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants_ Dr. John D. Clark reports on a Sixties incident where a rocketry program sent to Italy on punch cards would not compile, despite repeated shipments of new copies of the card deck. The sender finally sent a tray with an escort. Upon arriving in Italian customs, the inspector opened the package, saw all these apparently identical note cards and took a few out for his own use. (In that time and place, customs inspectors were allowed to take personal samples from batches of multiple, cheap items.)
(I can't find the story in my digital copy, so details in that may differ a bit from what I related.)
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2020-06-29 07:03 pm (UTC)In _Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants_ Dr. John D. Clark reports on a Sixties incident where a rocketry program sent to Italy on punch cards would not compile, despite repeated shipments of new copies of the card deck. The sender finally sent a tray with an escort. Upon arriving in Italian customs, the inspector opened the package, saw all these apparently identical note cards and took a few out for his own use. (In that time and place, customs inspectors were allowed to take personal samples from batches of multiple, cheap items.)
(I can't find the story in my digital copy, so details in that may differ a bit from what I related.)