First tenet: If P.T. Barnum had lived in the age of terrorism, you’d see fake bomb/ivory/truffle detectors being made that worked by showing the thing a picture and tuning it to the “vapors” of the stuff. Second tenet: We DO have this being made. Conclusion: P.T. Barnum is still alive and living in the Bermuda Triangle. Bonus conclusion: There are more minutes in the day than there used to be, and the suckers born therin have a lot more money.
Read about it on Wikpedia: ADE_651
The ADE 651 has been used at hundreds of Iraqi police and Iraqi military checkpoints across the country, often replacing physical inspections of vehicles.