When I was a kid in the late 1960s I found a half pint jar of radium paint in a old building starting to collapse. It glowed brightly in the dark, Bright enough to read a book by if you held the jar 6 inches from the book. I knew it was radioactive back then but we did not really know what radioactive was back then because there was so much of that stuff around. I never did paint anything with it but that jar sat on a shelf in my bedroom for about ten years, about 8 feet from my bed. I turned 18 and moved out of my parents house and I do not know what happened to it after that.
That is terrifying. Probably >>1mCi of radium. I'm glad to see you're still around and don't seem to have encountered any issues from that exposure. If you're able to find out where that jar went, it would be good. That much Ra paint is not just dangerous (that word is a gross understatement)
The aircraft compass is actually a gyrocompass, hence its size. A compass with magnetized arrow becomes less accurate the closer you are to poles. When magnetic poles of Earth are being reversed, it should become useless. I don't think they check every package with scintillation detector but shipping those items is risky. Packages aren't handled individually with extreme gentleness. They get damaged and when the glass of such items breaks, there's a contamination. In some countries when such item is caught, it is confiscated, the shipper faces a "pleasant" conversation with authorities representative and ends up paying the disposal fee.
Here in the US we don’t have that type of “pleasant” discussion buying stuff like this. I’ve had some pretty hot sources shipped to me with zero problems.
Some time ago, before 2010 I found an old Jaeger-le-Coultre pocket watch in fair condition at a flea market, made for the British army for WWII. It is stamped with G.S.T.P., the broad arrow and its serial number on the back cover, also the former owner did engrave his name on the inside of the cover. It is only mildly radioactive, around 50 µGy/h at the most, over the 12 hour index with both hands at 11:05. The paint even still glows very faintly and time is still readable at night, but it seems that it isn't the same type of lume as in your compass, it is completely white and not flaky. At a later date i found a similar one on Ebay, this one came with a very nice white dial. When it came to me it was completely disassembled and all the pieces except the case parts and the dial where packaged with some paper towels in a little tin, I had to prepare before opening the package by putting a piece of trash bag over the table (outside) to avoid any contamination, a facemask, some tweezers and nitrile gloves. When approached with my German military SV-500 GM meter with its beta-gamma probe, it became very active, I don't recall exactly how strong the radiation was, but it was way more than 50 µGy, much more... The dial alone produces around 0,5 mGy/h, it has its indexes and the numbers 12, 3, 6, 9 covered in a thick layer of this very orange, nearly brown and very flaky lume, but that wasn't the worst of it. When I looked at the pieces contained in that little tin, I was a bit perplexed at what was in there, all the mechanical parts of the watch, the very radioactive hands with broken pieces of lume and dust everywhere! The hour and minute hand alone does give of around 1,8 mGy/h on contact, with the beta shield open. They are coated in a thick layer of cracked and flaky orange-brown lume, so thick, it looks like they simply dipped the hands in lume and left all the excess material on them. I keep the parts of that watch in the little very contaminated tin it came in, double bagged, in a safe outside our living area, and the same goes for the hands, which I placed in a lead container for good measure. After the cleanup I contacted the seller and informed him about the situation, he was very surprised and didn't have a clue about old military watches containing a lot of radium. He never took any precautions as he said. Beware of old flaky radium lume is all I can say after that experience... The first, complete watch is now perfectly serviced, it took some time before I found a watchmaker willing to work on it, the nice black dial still glows nicely and the watch keeps time well, at least for a nearly 85 year old watch. My profile picture does indicate the value displayed on my SV-500 when I first measured the hands and their crumbly radium paint. Nearly 200 mRad/h ! (ß+γ)
Radium items are always something to be careful with...they can contaminate an area very easily without you knowing. Good thing you told that seller about the item. Crazy to think of an item like that contaminating an area and not knowing about it.
@@RadioactiveDrew That's for sure, that dust will eventually get everywhere if no precaution is taken. But I was really surprised, as was the guy who sold it to me, I knew it would contain Radium but never imagined it would be that much of a mess. It is like in your videos in the antique shops, often they have no idea what they are selling. I built a little spinthariscope using a piece of that lume, although it isn't as bright compared with your smoke detector and the ZnS screen, it still is strong enough to work very well. Because of this I had measure the hands today, but γ only, and the detector showed me between 35-40 µGy/h at contact, so these are still my hottest items. Except for my dental x-ray tube when it is powered at 60 kV and 0,4 mA, but I don't really know what my detector displays since I never am in the same room when it is running, but it screams nicely when the probe is placed in the beam... Eventually I will put the setup together again, but the HV power supply needs some attention, it is rather vintage, all vacuum tube, built for a use with an old Zeiss electron microscope and is ridiculously large for the power it can provide.
I had ordered some vintage lantern mantles on ebay and even before I opened the package or even the mail box i used my counter and found em to be radioactive which made me happy
I think it was all about editing. Both of those compasses are fairly radioactive. I think I use one of them in another video testing out geiger counters.
@@RadioactiveDrew I guess that one is around 1960, it's not the one I though it was. If it was what I though it was then it would be more than fairly radioactive.
I had a tritium watch given by my grandfather when I was 6 yrs old in the 90s, or so my grandfather used to tell me it was radioactive(not sure never checked it). It would glow in the dark, a green color. I knew back then it wasn’t good for your health, so I would wear it as much. Even though I had no idea what radiation was in the past. I ended up breaking the face of the watch exposing it m, but I never touched it and just trashed it in the bin after looking at it for a min. Just the fact that I picked up how they said “radiation” I used context clues from their verbal and non verbal communication to tell me it was dangerous. Wild times.
In my experience dealing with tritium objects they usually emit very little radiation...almost undetectable. I would be much more concerned with items using radium as its quite radioactive.
It should also be noted that taking apart gauges can and have been previously marked by the NRC as creating orphan sources. The NRC likes the radium still in its original device. Which gets complicated on the side of watch repair. Some of what may allow shipping of radioactive antiques or collectables is what the original isotope is. Most shipping centers use large area detectors capable of spectrum identification. There are a few categories used, each manufacturer usually has their own set of list names and what isotopes are involved, these also can be changed by the end user to meet their specific requirements. I havent found any paper work on what most shipping companies and the poster service deems as a questionable isotope exactly, or what the max exterior dosage can not exceed. That said it's likely the shipping companies and the postal service may actually allow higher dosage from common isotopes, versus those found in a few select industries and the medical field. A example of this maybe their metering device not alarming to a source who's spectrum shows radium-226 versus a similarity high dosage from say Cesium-137 a industrial source, or a Thallium-204 medical isotope.
They usually set their scanners to ignore NORMs at low activity levels. Once got a lot of thorium lantern mantles to simulate realistic low level contamination during a training event and the box of 5000 mantles was pretty hot. The strongest ones from aircraft ive come across was a ww2 turn and bank indicator with a 2x2 plate thickly painted with radium. The gauge itself made over 60mR/hr gamma only. Dont want to know what it is with all gamma and beta, and dont want to find out no doubt its heavily contaminated inside.. 🤓
@@christopherleubner6633 I did a video on some of those Turn Bank indicators. They are very spicy and have a cool glow under long exposure photography.
@@christopherleubner6633 did a test of a bank indicator plate that was removed, with a ludlum mod 9 ion it was reading around 50mR/hr of gamma, beta + gamma highest was around 600mR/hr. Shockingly after many swipes tests of a guage that had its source removed recent to testing without cleaning it was very clean, although as everyone knows these things like to shed.
anything actually dangerous to society could be detected at more than 5 miles a distance dangerous is a tricky word when explaining. is it dangerous to drink water, it has lots of trace elements inside of it that are harmful to us, including radioactive minerals.
I really love your style of filmmaking. I hope that your channel grows because it’s so interesting. Maybe you can check out some tritium or show us your collection of radioactive stuff! A tour of your collection would be really interesting! Keep it up!
I'd also add to check into online forums for items you are interested in. Those often have good information about what to look for especially if you're looking for something specific.
Wow! I habe found an old radio in my gradpas attic with a LOT of radium paint on a dial. No glass. Nothing. I can meausure about 280 microsievert per hour. Thats quite a lot.
If your sleeping ontop of it then that could be dangerous. The intensity of radiation drops off dramatically the further away you get from items like this. Anything that is too active or gives off more gamma radiation than I would want to be around I keep in a concrete lined safe in the garage.
@@RadioactiveDrew it's probably "burnt" glass. I noticed this on one of my banks (glass has turned brown in the areas close to the Ra paint). Very cool...
Good question. Keeping a bunch of radioactive items together can add to the overall area radiation level. But it doesn’t multiply in a linear fashion. Also it depends on the type of radiation and how intense each item is.
I would assume the regional processing centers have machinery that scans mail in bulk and if something past a certain level it alerts. Most scrap yards have them because radioactivity in scrap metal furnaces is a BIG deal. I saw a video once on how the detection works and it’s both highly sensitive, simple, and not really expansive. I know they have sniffers for bad bio and chemical contaminants…I’ve seen the machine. I’ll ask my neighbor who works at the mail plant to see about radioactive detection.
Nice find, if i may ask how do you store your aircraft dials, do you put them on display or you keep them locked. I am asking cause i also own a collection of radium aircraft dials which are pretty hot. Thanks it advance.
I keep some of mine in a display case that's a little ways away from where people would sit or hangout. The gamma radiation on those dials is what concerns me the most. Further away the better.
I collect them too love aircraft gauges and have noticed that military Jeep and gauges for their vehicles had glow in the dark gauges can I store these and display them safely??!
I don’t wash my hands after handling the pieces I have. When I get a new piece to add to the collection I will hand wash it with soap and water. Usually items from an antique shop collect a lot of dust. If I’m handling radium items I always wash my hands afterwards. Uranium ores I wear gloves. I’ve had more times than I like to count where a particle of uranium dust has been under my fingernail making my fingers 10x above background. Usually takes intense scrubbing to get that contamination off.
Depends on how radioactive the objects are. The uranium glazed plates, uranium glass and some of the weaker radium items…I keep in a display case in the house. The really spicy stuff I keep in an old safe in the garage.
i can see someone buying some things like this, smashing the glass and stuff their faces to see what's in there to get a taste of 900 time more than environment radiation
In my experience the danger associated with radon exposure is greatly exaggerated. I have a video where I visit radon health mines in Montana and then go to a uranium mine in Utah to show the difference between low levels of radon and high levels.
Those old pilots and navigators were in quite the hot seat surrounded by all the gauges for hours and hours day after day
Plus all the cosmos rays they get bombarded with
When I was a kid in the late 1960s I found a half pint jar of radium paint in a old building starting to collapse. It glowed brightly in the dark, Bright enough to read a book by if you held the jar 6 inches from the book. I knew it was radioactive back then but we did not really know what radioactive was back then because there was so much of that stuff around. I never did paint anything with it but that jar sat on a shelf in my bedroom for about ten years, about 8 feet from my bed. I turned 18 and moved out of my parents house and I do not know what happened to it after that.
Wow, that would be a very hot item to have around.
That is one SPICY ORPHAN SOURCE.
-mmmm, gimme that thing-
😊
That is terrifying. Probably >>1mCi of radium. I'm glad to see you're still around and don't seem to have encountered any issues from that exposure. If you're able to find out where that jar went, it would be good. That much Ra paint is not just dangerous (that word is a gross understatement)
Me: purchasing a source hot enough to max out my CMG600
Australian customs: All good if there’s nothing organic in there
Hahahaha...wow.
Imagine the exposure the warehouse and mail people get daily without even knowing.
It's crazy to think that radioactive material were used widely in past for medical and higiene purposes, even added into candies
Yeah, they added it to everything.
The aircraft compass is actually a gyrocompass, hence its size. A compass with magnetized arrow becomes less accurate the closer you are to poles. When magnetic poles of Earth are being reversed, it should become useless.
I don't think they check every package with scintillation detector but shipping those items is risky. Packages aren't handled individually with extreme gentleness. They get damaged and when the glass of such items breaks, there's a contamination.
In some countries when such item is caught, it is confiscated, the shipper faces a "pleasant" conversation with authorities representative and ends up paying the disposal fee.
Here in the US we don’t have that type of “pleasant” discussion buying stuff like this. I’ve had some pretty hot sources shipped to me with zero problems.
Some time ago, before 2010 I found an old Jaeger-le-Coultre pocket watch in fair condition at a flea market, made for the British army for WWII. It is stamped with G.S.T.P., the broad arrow and its serial number on the back cover, also the former owner did engrave his name on the inside of the cover. It is only mildly radioactive, around 50 µGy/h at the most, over the 12 hour index with both hands at 11:05. The paint even still glows very faintly and time is still readable at night, but it seems that it isn't the same type of lume as in your compass, it is completely white and not flaky.
At a later date i found a similar one on Ebay, this one came with a very nice white dial. When it came to me it was completely disassembled and all the pieces except the case parts and the dial where packaged with some paper towels in a little tin, I had to prepare before opening the package by putting a piece of trash bag over the table (outside) to avoid any contamination, a facemask, some tweezers and nitrile gloves.
When approached with my German military SV-500 GM meter with its beta-gamma probe, it became very active, I don't recall exactly how strong the radiation was, but it was way more than 50 µGy, much more... The dial alone produces around 0,5 mGy/h, it has its indexes and the numbers 12, 3, 6, 9 covered in a thick layer of this very orange, nearly brown and very flaky lume, but that wasn't the worst of it.
When I looked at the pieces contained in that little tin, I was a bit perplexed at what was in there, all the mechanical parts of the watch, the very radioactive hands with broken pieces of lume and dust everywhere! The hour and minute hand alone does give of around 1,8 mGy/h on contact, with the beta shield open. They are coated in a thick layer of cracked and flaky orange-brown lume, so thick, it looks like they simply dipped the hands in lume and left all the excess material on them. I keep the parts of that watch in the little very contaminated tin it came in, double bagged, in a safe outside our living area, and the same goes for the hands, which I placed in a lead container for good measure.
After the cleanup I contacted the seller and informed him about the situation, he was very surprised and didn't have a clue about old military watches containing a lot of radium. He never took any precautions as he said.
Beware of old flaky radium lume is all I can say after that experience...
The first, complete watch is now perfectly serviced, it took some time before I found a watchmaker willing to work on it, the nice black dial still glows nicely and the watch keeps time well, at least for a nearly 85 year old watch.
My profile picture does indicate the value displayed on my SV-500 when I first measured the hands and their crumbly radium paint. Nearly 200 mRad/h ! (ß+γ)
Radium items are always something to be careful with...they can contaminate an area very easily without you knowing. Good thing you told that seller about the item. Crazy to think of an item like that contaminating an area and not knowing about it.
@@RadioactiveDrew That's for sure, that dust will eventually get everywhere if no precaution is taken. But I was really surprised, as was the guy who sold it to me, I knew it would contain Radium but never imagined it would be that much of a mess. It is like in your videos in the antique shops, often they have no idea what they are selling.
I built a little spinthariscope using a piece of that lume, although it isn't as bright compared with your smoke detector and the ZnS screen, it still is strong enough to work very well. Because of this I had measure the hands today, but γ only, and the detector showed me between 35-40 µGy/h at contact, so these are still my hottest items. Except for my dental x-ray tube when it is powered at 60 kV and 0,4 mA, but I don't really know what my detector displays since I never am in the same room when it is running, but it screams nicely when the probe is placed in the beam...
Eventually I will put the setup together again, but the HV power supply needs some attention, it is rather vintage, all vacuum tube, built for a use with an old Zeiss electron microscope and is ridiculously large for the power it can provide.
I had ordered some vintage lantern mantles on ebay and even before I opened the package or even the mail box i used my counter and found em to be radioactive which made me happy
Why didn't you take a reading on that compass at 6:55? trying to keep that one secret?
I think it was all about editing. Both of those compasses are fairly radioactive. I think I use one of them in another video testing out geiger counters.
@@RadioactiveDrew I guess that one is around 1960, it's not the one I though it was. If it was what I though it was then it would be more than fairly radioactive.
I had a tritium watch given by my grandfather when I was 6 yrs old in the 90s, or so my grandfather used to tell me it was radioactive(not sure never checked it). It would glow in the dark, a green color. I knew back then it wasn’t good for your health, so I would wear it as much. Even though I had no idea what radiation was in the past. I ended up breaking the face of the watch exposing it m, but I never touched it and just trashed it in the bin after looking at it for a min.
Just the fact that I picked up how they said “radiation” I used context clues from their verbal and non verbal communication to tell me it was dangerous. Wild times.
In my experience dealing with tritium objects they usually emit very little radiation...almost undetectable. I would be much more concerned with items using radium as its quite radioactive.
It should also be noted that taking apart gauges can and have been previously marked by the NRC as creating orphan sources.
The NRC likes the radium still in its original device. Which gets complicated on the side of watch repair.
Some of what may allow shipping of radioactive antiques or collectables is what the original isotope is. Most shipping centers use large area detectors capable of spectrum identification.
There are a few categories used, each manufacturer usually has their own set of list names and what isotopes are involved, these also can be changed by the end user to meet their specific requirements. I havent found any paper work on what most shipping companies and the poster service deems as a questionable isotope exactly, or what the max exterior dosage can not exceed.
That said it's likely the shipping companies and the postal service may actually allow higher dosage from common isotopes, versus those found in a few select industries and the medical field.
A example of this maybe their metering device not alarming to a source who's spectrum shows radium-226 versus a similarity high dosage from say Cesium-137 a industrial source, or a Thallium-204 medical isotope.
Thanks for all that info.
They usually set their scanners to ignore NORMs at low activity levels. Once got a lot of thorium lantern mantles to simulate realistic low level contamination during a training event and the box of 5000 mantles was pretty hot. The strongest ones from aircraft ive come across was a ww2 turn and bank indicator with a 2x2 plate thickly painted with radium. The gauge itself made over 60mR/hr gamma only. Dont want to know what it is with all gamma and beta, and dont want to find out no doubt its heavily contaminated inside.. 🤓
@@christopherleubner6633 I did a video on some of those Turn Bank indicators. They are very spicy and have a cool glow under long exposure photography.
@@christopherleubner6633 did a test of a bank indicator plate that was removed, with a ludlum mod 9 ion it was reading around 50mR/hr of gamma, beta + gamma highest was around 600mR/hr.
Shockingly after many swipes tests of a guage that had its source removed recent to testing without cleaning it was very clean, although as everyone knows these things like to shed.
anything actually dangerous to society could be detected at more than 5 miles a distance
dangerous is a tricky word when explaining.
is it dangerous to drink water, it has lots of trace elements inside of it that are harmful to us, including radioactive minerals.
I really love your style of filmmaking. I hope that your channel grows because it’s so interesting. Maybe you can check out some tritium or show us your collection of radioactive stuff! A tour of your collection would be really interesting! Keep it up!
Thanks. I plan on doing some videos about my collection in the near future.
@@RadioactiveDrewsounds great.
I'd also add to check into online forums for items you are interested in. Those often have good information about what to look for especially if you're looking for something specific.
The radioactive bowl work make a great April fools trick 😆
I could see that giving someone a little bit of a scare.
One of your best videos... Great information for prospective buyers. BTW - Love that T-Shirt, so I bought one....Thanks Drew.
Wow! I habe found an old radio in my gradpas attic with a LOT of radium paint on a dial. No glass. Nothing. I can meausure about 280 microsievert per hour. Thats quite a lot.
How is it not dangerous to have that stuff in your home?
If your sleeping ontop of it then that could be dangerous. The intensity of radiation drops off dramatically the further away you get from items like this. Anything that is too active or gives off more gamma radiation than I would want to be around I keep in a concrete lined safe in the garage.
Hello, awesome video! What about the Aircraft Compass Mark X, from Kollsman. It has Radium?
Its possible...really depends on when it was manufactured.
I'm really enjoying your videos and looking forward to more.
Thanks. I have a bunch planned out and I'm working on 3 right now.
Nice find!
The glass looks like it has a tint to it. Did they use leaded glass to cut down on the rads or is that radiation induced darkening?
As far as I know it isn't leaded glass...the radiation will darken glass given enough time.
@@RadioactiveDrew it's probably "burnt" glass. I noticed this on one of my banks (glass has turned brown in the areas close to the Ra paint). Very cool...
If you have a bunch of low radiation items in your house can the radiation combine and reach a dangerous level?
Good question. Keeping a bunch of radioactive items together can add to the overall area radiation level. But it doesn’t multiply in a linear fashion. Also it depends on the type of radiation and how intense each item is.
How they're (US Mail) measuring this stuff? How many US POs have Geiger counters? So glad I'm no longer a courier driver!
I’m not sure where they have detectors. Maybe only at major hubs.
I would assume the regional processing centers have machinery that scans mail in bulk and if something past a certain level it alerts. Most scrap yards have them because radioactivity in scrap metal furnaces is a BIG deal.
I saw a video once on how the detection works and it’s both highly sensitive, simple, and not really expansive. I know they have sniffers for bad bio and chemical contaminants…I’ve seen the machine. I’ll ask my neighbor who works at the mail plant to see about radioactive detection.
How come those bananas are so strong? Is that pottery uranium based? :) ...Haha just finishe the video...all understood!
Yeah it was a little trick ;)
Nice find, if i may ask how do you store your aircraft dials, do you put them on display or you keep them locked. I am asking cause i also own a collection of radium aircraft dials which are pretty hot. Thanks it advance.
I keep some of mine in a display case that's a little ways away from where people would sit or hangout. The gamma radiation on those dials is what concerns me the most. Further away the better.
@@RadioactiveDrew Sure , thanks for your advice, i do the same.
I collect them too love aircraft gauges and have noticed that military Jeep and gauges for their vehicles had glow in the dark gauges can I store these and display them safely??!
Do you wash your hands after handling uranium glazed bowls or fiestawares? I wash my hands after handling uranium fiestaware
I don’t wash my hands after handling the pieces I have. When I get a new piece to add to the collection I will hand wash it with soap and water. Usually items from an antique shop collect a lot of dust. If I’m handling radium items I always wash my hands afterwards. Uranium ores I wear gloves. I’ve had more times than I like to count where a particle of uranium dust has been under my fingernail making my fingers 10x above background. Usually takes intense scrubbing to get that contamination off.
Интересная подстава с бананами и Фиестой, в начале.
Thanks, I usually don't keep bananas in that bowl. Its usually kept in a case with other low intensity items.
Where did you license that song?
Pretty sure it was from Musicbed.
Build up of radon gas inside the unit?
Good stuff
Glad to be on yet another .gov list.
@RadioactiveDrew >>> You ought to put one of those instruments in a cloud chamber and film it.
I really enjoyed this video. thank you very much, DA
Glad you enjoyed it.
@@RadioactiveDrew Wow1 I am so impressed that a creator responded to my gratitude, Its made me subscribe and start watching all your other vids. DA
I try and respond to everyone’s comments.
In the past I worked on equipment from tmi all ways creap me out around the stuff a few things where dated before the melt down . Ooo
Great video as per usual.
Thanks.
So how do you even store radioactive material
Depends on how radioactive the objects are. The uranium glazed plates, uranium glass and some of the weaker radium items…I keep in a display case in the house. The really spicy stuff I keep in an old safe in the garage.
imagine getting robbed and the thief steals the cancer safe and dies
@@Shrek_Has_Covid19 karma lol
what do you think of the raysid bluletooth NaI:Tl spectrometer? they are $$$ but I WANT one.
Hard to say without testing it. Looks like a cool idea. Would be awesome to have that ability to ID sources in the field.
I want one too but they are always sold out.
Abrupt ending, eh.
i can see someone buying some things like this, smashing the glass and stuff their faces to see what's in there to get a taste of 900 time more than environment radiation
Radium-226 - leak radon-222 gas very dangerous !!!
In my experience the danger associated with radon exposure is greatly exaggerated. I have a video where I visit radon health mines in Montana and then go to a uranium mine in Utah to show the difference between low levels of radon and high levels.
normal people coming here to watch radioactive dangerous stuff?
don't forget to drink water.
Hjajaa
Thermo Scientific Radeye B20 radiation survey meter (we used to call them "Geiger counters" back in the day) costs $2,250. Jesus Fucking Christ!!!!!!
You remove the old radium and reassemble the instruments. How many Pioneer tun n banks are made today?
Women would paint clocks with this
Many developed mouth and throat cancers
WTF?