Before You Buy An Antique Clock On Ebay
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 23 июл 2024
- Ebay is a literal radioactive stockpile of 20th Century radium encrusted things. In this video I talk about some of them. Enjoy! (And exercise caution)
Radium Clock Video - • Viewer Mail 10
Join Team FranLab!!!! Become a patron and help support my RUclips Channel on Patreon: / frantone
#radium #ebay #geiger
- Music by Fran Blanche -
Frantone on Facebook - / frantone
Fran on Twitter - / contourcorsets
Fran's Science Blog - www.frantone.com/designwriting...
FranArt Website - www.contourcorsets.com 
Наука
I think it's more a matter of people not knowing rather than not caring, which is why your knowledgeable videos are great!
Knowledge Is Power indeed...
@@FranLab This is why I bought a geiger counter a few months ago. Generally people aren't aware and because they can't tell it's there without a geiger counter to detect it they might never know. To make sure the Geiger counter was working though I had to get my hands on a test source so I bought a thorium gas lamp mantle which is now sat in the corner of my office in the plastic envelope it was shipped in. I didn't need to open it to test the geiger counter and it worked at charm. Maybe I should make a lead pig to keep it in?
@@binky_bun why would it have to be a lead pig, surely second or even third in command would suffice
@@kamalmanzukie The big bad wolf already got those two
@@binky_bun Can a smoke detector be used to test the geiger counter?
Marie Curie was astonished when she could see radioactive glow with eyes closed. That would make great bedside clock, you could see time while sleeping.
For a few years at least ;)
@@crackthefoundation_ yes, she died from aplastic anemia, because the radium (and other things) eventually damaged her bone marrow to the extent that red blood cell production was insufficient.
Marie Curie's husband died from radiation: he was crossing the road preoccupied with thoughts of radiation and was run over by a beer wagon.
@@mannysanguena7900 so, alcohol killed him?
@@jhingur7169 I guess you could say so. That mean both alcohol and radiation are bad for your health!
As a kid in the 1950's, we had radium EVERYTHING ! Clocks, crucifixes, toys, statues, and even salt and pepper shakers !
but how about radium salt ?
Radioactive Scotch Tape dispensers.
The heavy weight inside is orange monazite sand (a thorium ore.) One of mine is completely inert, while the other gives about twice background counts. Fairly innocuous, somewhat like granite countertops.
The 1950's were the radioactive days there was thorium uranium and radium in every general store
Fran, you look _radiant_ today !!!
Radior! commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Radior_cosmetics_containing_radium_1918.jpg
And here's an appropriate lab notebook: www.redbubble.com/i/notebook/40495709.RXH2R
Bad-dum Tisssss....
I knew that the face painters suffered terrible fates, but hadn't considered the dangers of crumbling paint etc. Appreciate the PSA
Radium Girls they were called in Switzerland. They had big face issues because they used to put the brushes with the radium paint in their mouth. The places the dail factories were, are still an issue today but the story is held a little under the surface.
Swiss watches had radium dials up to the 1960s. Then they used Tritium and these dials are marked: T-Swiss Made-T!
@@jurivlk5433 The US had Radium Girls too. I'm told some even painted their teeth and subsequently lost all of them.
The dial painted would "tip" their brushes on the lips in order to create a point fine enough for detail work, thus ingesting large amounts of the radium paint.
Radium is chemically similar to calcium, so the body builds it into bones. While bones, and the jaw and teeth in particular, may seem barely alive, they are nonetheless being forever maintained and rebuilt by the body. Radium is a powerful alpha emitter, and when ingested in large (microgram) quantities, destroys everything around it so quickly that cancer from genetic scrambling doesn't even have a chance to set in.
Clock makers and the mad hatters (mercury in felt lining of hats)!
@@DandyDon1 Not clock makers but especially dial makers are the most endangered species! The factory sites are still contaminated and Swiss were very behind the Japanese!
My Teacher in the 70s was alarmed to discover by accident that his inherited watch was far more radioactive than the source we used in the classroom!!
Well, the classroom source was designed to be very low power - because kids - the paint is not 100% radium. The paint is mostly phosphorus mineral, plus a small trace of dilute radium.
One of the sources we used in the classroom was an old radium painted (hands only) alarm clock!
A kid who sat too close to a cathode ray TV that morning would me more radioactive than the source used in schools. I know this from being in a lab with a kid who did just that!
@@toomanymarys7355 If he registered on a detector, it was not caused by a television. CRT tubes don't emit particulate radiation, so -- while they could be harmful -- people exposed to them would not become emitters themselves.
@@toomanymarys7355 Unlikely... Radioactivity is not "contagious".
My grandfather was proud to show how he could read in the dark from the light from the dial of his watch.
He unfortunately died from lymphoma at age 64.
Great read: "The Radium Girls" by Kate Moore. It's also a great history of workman's compensation.
A little off-topic, but the story of the discovery of radon in homes is also quite interesting, especially if you live on "the Reading Prong" in Pennsylvania.
See that on Netflix right now.
Can't recommend that book enough. My colleges library had it out on display one week and I'm glad they did because it became my favorite book I've read in years.
@@jefftreseder4358 thank you, Irish TV RTE1 showed this film many years ago. If it is the same film the Geiger counter was still able to read the radiation from there graves. 😔
Netflix won’t show this film in Ireland 🙄🙂
My mate of mine likes to walk into antique shops with a geiger counter, one of the old style large ones and check out the green glass wear. You should see the looks when it goes off.
Yes, Uranium glass, also glows under UV light, not much of a threat-fairly weak.
There is also Thorium glass (generally dark beige to light brown).
not a real threat either.
Is this U glass any danger to use? Say in an old fruit juicer? I think the doping level in the glass would be too low.
@@dno8maid It's generally "safe". Can't recommend it though, no matter what you do in modern daily life, you're getting similar doses, reducing carcinogen exposure/ionizing radiation is often a wise thing to do
@@dno8maid What I’ve heard (read) is that you shouldn’t use it with acidic foods/juices, which can leach out some of the Uranium. Personally, I’d never want it in contact with any of my food.
A mate of mine has actually a watch shop where he's selling very old watch stuff, watch dials from the 1900-today and government officials wanted to close his shop because of radiation! He had to declare his shop as a "historic monument" to be able to keep it open and sign various papers that he's aware of the dangers he's running! The former owner is now in his late 80s and still working there from time to time. So, the law of radiation must be observed: Ten times the distance = 1/100 of radiation!
A bunch of houses in Philly were built in the 20s using sand waste from a radium dial factory.
Actually in Lansdowne, PA. I was the Radiation Safety Officer for several years at the Austin Avenue Radiation Superfund Site. The person who was responsible for most of the issues there was a professor (I think of physics) at the University of Pennsylvania in the very early 20th century (
Also, there is a documentary film out there called "Radium City" about the dial painters in Ontario(?), Illinois. I used it as a "good example of a bad example" in my radiation safety training courses showing their current radiation protection practices(???) during their cleanup. Told my health physics technicians, "If I catch you doing any of that, you're fired."
Correction to my above reply. It was Ottawa, Illinois not Ontario. The "Radium City" documentary is available on Vimeo.
@@johnsykesiii1629 a school got shut down recently after a student bought in a fiesterware plate and a geiger counter to show it off, in terms of risk it was minimal but the teachers went way OTT
The book "The Radioactive Boyscout" is a great read about this type of stuff!
Wasn't he the smoke detector collector?
@@timgooding2448 Yep and clocks as well if I recall!
@@timgooding2448 smoke detector theif. He was also mentally ill (by a lot) and he's now dead.
@@BobDarlington I know this know. quick comment before a search. He did love his americium-241. Enough to drive him to large scale theft, jail time and death. Not a full quid but worthwhile watching a doing a bit of reading and watching a few vids on.
@@timgooding2448 That's what he started with then graduated up to Raduim. Great read. I think he is still alive. I read he got a lifetime dose but not a fatal amount. Of course who knows what will happen in 20-30 years.
WOW had no idea this was a thing! As a person that people often hand me they’re old junk to fix often.... THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!!!!!
Several years ago, there were literally hundreds of yellow Victoreen "Geiger counters" dumped on Ebay from folks who acquired them from their local Civil Defense departments. Apparently, they were given the go-ahead to get rid of them. I thought they'd be a great conversation piece, so I picked one up. I immediately noticed the 3 ranges were WAY up there, 100R, 10R and 1R.
I calibrate these survey meters (they have a geiger-muller tube) with a Cs-137 source, up to a maximum of 1000mR/hr, so I was able to verify it did indeed work, but only on the lowest range. They didn't have ranges low enough to detect something like a radium clock dial because they were intended to be used during/after a nuclear event, where if your meter detected anything on any range, you were toast!
I had a watch back in 1966 that glowed such a nice green, mezmerizing to a 5 year old boy. I remember my older sister making my parents take it away from me, I had no Idea why at the time. Fifty years later I have a nice dime sized age spot on my wrist that looks alittle like a burn.
That's crazy. How'd your sister know at the time?
Really interesting ... and quite scary. I didn't realise that the radiation could continue long after the glow had stopped.
Half life of around 1600 years!
I think it's easy to automatically associate the glow with the radiation, but for the most part the glow stops because the phosphor degrades. This is certainly info that should be better spread!
@@brhfl2812 Yes the phosphor literally gets "burned-out" by the alpha radiation from the radium.
If radiation scares you, stay away from your granite kitchen counter. Also, don't ever fly on a plane.
@@BLUECREEK333 Just a heads up that most granite making it's way to people's homes is super mild on geiger counter. Yes, I've checked all the samples at the large home improvement shops just for fun. Nothing very interesting at my local ones anyway.
WOW Fran, I never appreciated this being a problem. DAMN good advice! Thanks from the UK.
A TV show called "1000 Ways to Die" did a story on the RADIUM GIRLS in one of their episodes. Exactly on this issue with radium ingestion.
🎵 Don't it always seem to go, that you don't what you've got 'til it's glowin?
hahaha im wondering how many know thats from a song..
Now I want a antique clock even more than ever!
Me too, especially if 7:11 is the result of exposure. That's a cute look.
One company I worked for also manufactured dosimeters. Anyhow, one business man dropped in to have a look at our current R&D of dosimeters. That day his electronic watch was not working, so just for the heck of it, he put on his fathers old watch instead. As he approached my work bench, the dosimeter alarms went off on each of the prototype dosimeters that I was testing at that time. Yes, his fathers watch was radio active. But even better than this was when the president of our company just came back from a hospital where he had received a cat scan. As he approached my bench, I noticed the radiation level bar displays on the dosimeters in front of me were beginning to clime. First they began to clime higher in the green (Good) area, then climb up into the orange (warning) area, and then as he was a bit closer they climbed up into the red (danger) area. By the time he was standing right behind me, all the alarms went off. He looked a bit nervous, once all the alarms went off.
Im really loving these videos that combine history, science, and electronics! you have so many interesting topics!
Thanks so much for the information Fran
Incredible! Thanks for sharing. This video alone will raise awareness.
In the 1970s in the UK, my parents had a Trimphone, this had an illuminated dial.
The dial was illuminated by a Betalight, which was a c-shaped sealed glass self luminescent tube coated internally with phosphor and filled with tritium gas.
In the early 1990s a friend who worked for British Telecom said that someone had found boxes of Betalights at the back of store room and they had to call the National Radiological Protection Board to organise their safe disposal.
Peter - Amazing about the Betalite of the 1970's. Watch makes are just now starting to use Tritium.
But tritium has a half-life of about 12 years "only" and decays to a stable helium-3, so I don't think those lights are really dangerous after a few decades.
@@BluesyBor I agree that the risks would have been minimal, but there are radiation safety regulations that companies are obliged to follow.
This happened around 25 years after the devices were made, so there would still be some tritium remaining, however I think the only danger would have been if the tritium tubes were broken in a confined space.
@@peterjf7723 there will be some tritium that hasn't decayed yet 100, 200 and 500 years later - perks of half-life term. ;)
Besides tritium is a beta emitter, and beta radiation is "manageable" if it comes from outside of your body - so you're relatively safe as long as you do not absorb it somehow. Like when the tube breaks and some of this gets into your eye or mouth, or you inhale the vapor... Because then even small amount could prove fatal. A bit like mercury, but hurts in a different manner.
Now radium - 33 (I think) isotopes, all radioactive in various ways (alpha, beta, gamma, protons etc.), all decaying to other radioactive elements (I'm pretty sure that's true for all of them), ALL of them with half-life times from miliseconds to thousands of years. Compared to this, tritium is a cute puppy who can still bite if you're not careful. ;D
Fran is such an inspiring soul. Her energy is infectious
Why did I not discover you sooner?!?!?! I've been binge watching your old videos for the past 3 weeks or so. I love your work!!!!
That was really illuminating. Love your insightful videos.
Evening, Fran -
Fascinating, and creepy.
Enjoyed this & just subscribed, thanks...
This reminds me of the time when I bought my first Geiger counter as a kid.
I saved a long time for one. And of course I tried it on anything I could find.
I got some exciting readings from the moss near the drains in the street.
But the biggest surprise was a compass I had at home. Apparently it originated from the Hungarian military.
That was when I found out my Geiger counter also has a beeping function.
"well, we saw that your ceiling had been painted with radium paint, so we decided to cover it up with lead paint, so it should be perfectly safe now."
That's just what I was thinking when it was shown. Yeah, good 'Ol communism and caring for the peasants!
This is an excellent video on safety. Thank you so much!
Fran , I am so happy I found your channel. I love it.
Love your channel 💕 very informative
FRAN, Thank You for the reminder.
Thanks for the interesting video Fran. Your research is excellent.
Thank you for this information. It made me do some more research into my Junghans alarm clock from the early 50s. Turns out Junghans still used Radium at that point and my clock still glows strong.
Great video. Thanks. I didn’t know about radium paint.
Fran, thanks for the heads-up! I have several vintage clocks and now I need to check them out. Guess I'll need to purchase a Geiger-counter. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the heads-up on aircraft instruments. I will have to check the compass I picked up recently.
The local scrap yard I go to has a radioactivity detector at the entrance. All vehicles passing through must go 2 mph and wait for the green light.
I used to fly WW2 aircraft with a retired U.S. Navy pilot and in his North American SNJ-5C he had a compass with a radium dial. The FAA sent out a circular on this hazard and we replaced it with a new unit. This retrofit was done about 30 years ago. Thank You for sharing this wonderful info ma'am.
👍 Francyclopedia ! we always learn something! Thanks Fran!
"Radioactive Boy Scout" or the "Nuclear Boy Scout", was an American man who built a homemade neutron source at the age of seventeen.
Thank you for this. I learned something interesting about the phosphors degrading with time and the prevalence of radium dials in older time pieces.
I had a watch when I was in my teens that my father gave me. He bought it when he was in the army during WWII. It always glowed very bright. When I was in high-school electronics class I put a Geiger counter up to it and it pinned the meter! I broke it a few months later and threw it away.
Wow, I was completely unaware of the use of radium in the USSR. That's so crazy. I bought one piece of electronics from Poland, but it was produced post 1991.
Honestly, I like the radium clocks. As my Bday is Aug 6, I'm kind of an Atomic head.
So many wonder materials come back to bite us. Interesting channel, thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Thanks Fran that is very good information to know I am not planning on getting an antique clock but if I ever do come across one I would definitely want to check it out to make sure it wasn’t radioactive.
That was extremely interesting and a bit chilling!
Great video Fran , I've genuinely just been into my bedroom and removed 2 vintage alarm clocks and then into my son's room to remove a gauge from a spitfire plane . Question is what is a cheapish Geiger counter going to set me back or should I just get rid of these things .
I had one of the Tritium watches I bought from Sears, it glowed for at least 10 years until the capsule gave out.
There were switches used by both US and Soviets in aircraft and other vehicles. In the end of the switch there was a clear glass bead that housed a bit of radium and phosphor. They don't glow today but they still emit radioactive particles.
Fran, my father worked for US Gauge in Sellersville PA. Just go up Rt 309 about ten miles from Philly. Out of business and all buildings demolished around 2012 but where the first factory stood in the 1920s is fenced off, barren, and a superfund site. They used to coat gauge dials with Raduim in the same period as the Radium girls and the ground under the former factory is quite contaminated. Prime real estate too right in the center of town.
wow i had no idea there were so many on the market, that’s crazy.
@@glasslinger See ruclips.net/video/bLjcz-OBonY/видео.html, and on eBay old clocks, search on "antique" or "vintage" to exclude the post-1950s non-radium dials. Fran seems to have done that.
Yeah, I have two clocks with the radium painted hands and numbers. One is displayed high up on a shelf away from people and it still glows, I've had them since I was a kid (I'm 45 now) and loved seeing the glowing hands and numbers in the night.
A great friend of mine is in the horological business and always put his few antique radium timepieces in a thick lead box. Great advice!
I need to read the new Illinois Watch book that's quite an epic as I love 19th century and early 20th century American timepieces speaking of which.....
Did radium paint come in paint cans? Imagine finding one of those in a garage sale 😦 a whole quart of the stuff 😂 yikes.
It was manufactured by the drum. An advocate for (later, activist against) the harmlessness of radium paint, dunked his arm in it as a press stunt.
@@DrewskisBrews Yikes! How many extra arms did he have when he decided to work against it?
that would be really dangerous, imagine if you piled enough of those cans to have a critical mass, some clocks, meh
@@monad_tcp Radium isn't fissile, you can't get a critical mass.
Ebay was still selling antique "Fit-rite Radium Outfit" 1950s watchmaker kits at one time, containing several ccs of radium "lume" for watch-repair.
I learnt something today, thank you Fran.
Have been asked to survey a couple homes over the years from friends that had inventor type grandpas . Got a nice collection that is kept off premises.
I’ve heard that some are so radioactive that you just have to drive down the street in front of antique shops with a Geiger counter and it’ll go off
Really? Wow. I want a Geiger counter now.
Perhaps with a scintillator. Even if you have a quite good Geiger-Mueller counter, if an antique shop gives it a rise from outside while driving by, the occupants are in for health issues. Radium is an alpha emitter; alpha particles are easily stopped by paper. What the counter is picking up through the clock face is the "mild" gamma emissions from Radium along with Gamma+Beta from its daughters. With the dial face removed (don't do this!!!), a radium dial clock will send an alpha sensitive detector screaming. Not all "Geiger Counters" are alpha sensitive. Your average bright yellow Civil Defense GM counter is not.
The best GM tubes are sensitive, but that *that* sensitive. Scintillators on the other hand can be many orders of magnitudes more sensitive. Mine will register the granite cobblestone in my driveway and the bricks in my 115 year old house. For comparison, they're completely undetectable by a good pancake GM tube. The level is so low as to be harmless.
In the below video, the baseline of 2000-3000 CPM is just it picking up cosmic rays and natural radiation in the soil, all around us. A normal GM counter would be ticking about 40 times a minute
ruclips.net/video/3b69gsi8WW8/видео.html
I hadn't really thought about hot clocks specifically, but this is a good reminder that I probably should get a radiac for checking stuff in general. You never do know...
I used to fix and dismantle old clocks when I was a teenager, all sorts of mains powered, wind-up, alarm clocks, travel clocks. Even had a draw full of hands in the workshop and a pile of dials, and remember the paint coming off some. They didn’t seem to glow in the dark much though (after the usual “storage” types had run down). Never thought they could be radioactive (it was way before the internet). Perhaps that explains something...🤓 Interestingly now I know about this the radium paint is the only thing which stops me collecting old aircraft instruments, which would be very interesting inside!
Thanks so much for this video! I knew about the clocks but had no idea about things from the former ussr and avionics, both of which would very much be things I'd be interested in buying
Thanks for that very useful information 👍🏻
Hi Fran, enjoying your videos. I bought a clock in a local second hand shop..taking it to clockmaker after it fell from wall (another story), he says “young man, the only thing that fm transmitter receiver has in common with your clock is that rather oversized power source” . ! My radium dial has black onyx covering.
Great video Fran, now I’m getting my Frank Zappa album out. “ Studio Tan” seems appropriate.
7:11 what documentary is that from?
Plus one of the decay isotopes is radon.
Radium and Radon are part of the Uranium decay chain. Uranium ore gives off radon gas which is a potent carcinogen due to its radioactivity and gaseous form. In some cases house foundations can become saturated with radon gas (if not ventilated properly) , due to radioactive decay in the shallow crust.
@@paulmichaelfreedman8334 Yep very easy to vent though and not very expensive.
Radon is a nobel gas that is produced naturally. Since it isn't absorbed by the body it isn't very dangerous unless it is in high concentrations due to a lack of ventilation. The radium in clock paint will release an extremely small amount of radon.
@@paulmichaelfreedman8334 Or not. Actual studies with radon levels show that there is probably an hormesis effect at lower doses, and the European looser standards for radon are probably correct and strict US ones are wrong. :)
Thanks for the heads up Fran
Very interesting. I have worn my old Tudor to work and it puts our hand scanners into alarm when I leave the experimental halls. In fact I can't remember the actual figures but when we measured its dose rate, for a nearly 70 year old watch it was quite significant.
Thanks Fran!
Hi, Fran! I'm a new fan and really appreciate your interesting topics explained in simple terms! I scrolled through the responses and saw no questions about a recommended Geiger counter for home use. Would you share which one you chose and why? Thanks so much! -Buffy
This should be a Worldwide public service announcement. Thankyou Fran!
😱 Thanks for the PSA! I searched high & low for the vintage military “glow in the dark” gauges I have in my old CJ. I’ll have to find a Geiger counter and check my gauges
I grew up in Orange, NJ. A few blocks from my house was the old United States Radium factory of Radium Girls fame.
Next door to the main building was a small attached building that looked like a large garage. It even had the door. In there was the Elliot-Green sequin factory. My mom worked in that building. Also in the front of the main building was a small luncheonette, that I guess at one time catered to the factory workers. I was open and served food. Wikipedia says the company became defunct in 1970. So it was still in operation at that time.
In 1983 the EPA started cleaning up the site. They sent people out in the 90s to examine my mom to see if she had any. radon related health issues. She was in her 80s and fairly healthy for a woman of that age.
There was a lot of property in Orange and neighboring towns dug up because contractors used contaminated soil from the United States Radium factory site for land fill.
We had those Westclox radium dial clocks in my house growing up. They glowed at the time.
I've seen all sorts of radiactive items on ebay, including a Cobalt 60 source in a waveguide fitting and the seller had removed the closing plate to photograph it, despite the large warning labels.
I recently found out the clock I got from my grandpa’s shed had radium paint! I remember finding it and putting it up to my face and being so excited that it glowed in the dark… It was a scare at first to find out, but luckily it’s in great condition and I’ve never slept next to it.
So a lot of people have radium stuff and have no idea. I should probably avoid handling my great-grandfather's watch until I can check. Thanks Fran!
I think radium-dial compasses were very common, too.
The Army switched from radium to tritium gas in the 1960s. Tritium emits a low energy beta particle and, of course, dissipates immediately if the glass is broken.
Fran's Isotope Buying Tips. Thanks Fran. I'm off to eBay now. Love ya!
Oh, radium clocks make excellent sources for testing Geiger counters.
The eBay sellers either "do not know"... or they know very well and are keen to get rid of the "hot stuff".
Well you helped quite a few by letting us know thank you
What a nice public service you did contacting those old sellers. Cool chick 😎
thank you for yet another informative video....
Thanks I never knew any of that. I had my aunts old Westclox alarm clock when I was a kid. It glowed all night. It was on the other side of the room.
Good video. I have a couple old military aircraft gauges just for display. I never even thought to check them.
Don't store them near people or animals
ruclips.net/video/KRHy-fTEcZk/видео.html
Very useful information! In the watch community there are lots of people talking about "nice patina" such as "radium burn"....and that removing the radium is such a shame...well, for me, no matter how cool a watch is, if it's got radium it's just not worth it
Basically *ANY* metal scrap facility here in Europe has to be fitted with radiation detectors. I've worked at a steel mill where both truck entry and ship entry were doing detection. Both incoming and outgoing trucks had to pass detectors, and the scrap grapler hanging from the crane had a radiation detector build in as well. I still have my "geiger counter diploma", my certificate showing I know how to use a radiation counter properly.
Since every (European at least) steel manufacturer has to declare on its material certificates that the material is free from radioactive contamination, both steel mills and scrap dealers have radiation detection fitted.
Very interesting.. Thanks Fran!
Hey fran!! What should people do if they have a radium clock, like handling and precautions on use/storage/and if necessary, disposal?
Good point. Thanks for the heads-up, Fran. Caveat Emptor.
Fran i love your video's. You are awesome and very informative. my question is can i get a franlab shirt and where is a good source to find a geiger counter
I had a glow-in-the-dark wristwatch as a kid. Might I end up like this gentleman? 7:10 I can handle the truth. Thank you
No.
I think all the postal services ought to have radiation detectors on their mail sorting machines...it wouldn't cost much but they'd find so much of this stuff.
It's likely to be against their regs to use their service with radioactive stuff.
They probably do in some of the larger sorting centers. Fran did mention that only 3% of the emissions from radium paint were gamma radiation, which is what would be easily detectable. The remaining 97% is in the form of "weak" alpha particles where the glass and the packing material are enough to block the majority of it. Those weak alpha particles can still be very dangerous though, ingesting any of the radium would put those particles in direct contact with your cells.
@@keenanfinucan8778 In the video, at 0:31 Fran detected the radiation through the clock glass. That would have blocked all the alpha, so she was getting that reading from just the gamma. However, it did look like she had to get quite close to it to get a significant reading.
@@glasslinger I'm not sure they are. They can be pretty "hot".
I would say radioactive mail ought to have hazard labels like everything else needs to (even batteries these days). No label? Your stuff gets a giant warning sticker and you have to sign a disclaimer.
@@beware_the_moose You better stick those disclaimers on your barbecue as well, them.
wow, I'll have to ditch the dials and hands. TYSM hadn't thought about that!!
I just like old clocks for the mechanisms inside
@Fran Blanche
You have a positively radiate glow today!
Great topic, enlightening even! 😉
I have a friend with a radium-painted DC3 airspeed indicator that is hot as a pistol (radiologically speaking). By far the most radioactive thing I've ever pointed my Geiger counter at.
There was a plant in a nearby town that had assembled aircraft instruments during WWII. About 20 years ago, someone finally checked the drums of surplus instrument needles stored in a corner. Instant superfund site.
Please do a follow up about geiger counters next. Maybe some recomendations? Thanks!
Lowest price, way under $100, search for "assembled geiger counter kit," it's only an electronics board and battery connector, you provide the plastic box. Also, Electronics Goldmine has cheap little DIY geiger counter kits, solder-it-yourself.
There are tiny smartphone "android" geiger counters, but no actual counter-tube, not very sensitive. I've never tried those.
Fairly good one for $100 or so is "GQ GMC" little white device with USB and lcd screen, but doesn't sense alphas.
Expensive pro GM counters with external probe are: Ludlum or Eberline corp, used ones usually $500-$1500 (I once found one for $150, w/dead meter, working pancake probe.)
Weird: search pripyat master, or pripyat bella. These are pocket geiger/dosimeters dating from the Chernobyl era, w/little LCD screen, usually under $50
Why do I feel the urge to build a PIPBOY while watching?
Back in the day, I worked for an old steel mill. They used a giger counter to scan all the incoming rail cars, which contained the scrap metal. Every once in a great while it would pop, from radioactive contaminants, like scrapped medical scanning equipment.
Have them use the good meter. The one from the safe.
Wow, never mind about this. Realy nice to know.
7:10 After the radium paint stopped glowing... heads started growing!