Man your crazy, working with this amount of radium with nothing but a 100$ Geiger owww, get a contamination meter also a radon device would be cool i cant imagine the radon level in your place, also you should try to get a higher range counter, scintillator are nice you really get the dosage to see the risk
Wow! That is awesome! I love that kit at the end! That's the radium-226 (likely radium-226 sulfate-as a compound, being the active ingredient) that you mix with the copper-activated zinc sulfide! That's why your G-M counter was over-saturated, due to the "fold-back effect." You get right up to it, and the counts drop significantly. I have a few recommendations: 1: I'd get a much better G-M counter, like a Ludlum Model 3, 12, or 14C, with a "pancake" type detector tube, like the 44-7 probe. I'd also look for and alpha particle scintillation probe for said Ludlum Model 3, 12, 14C, which you can use various probes with the same ratemeter G-M counter. Keep the probes facing downward, and avoid touching these items; you don't want to contaminate your radiation detection instruments. These instruments are pricy, but far superior! Used ones are cheaper, but make sure that they work, and that they've been recently calibrated! 2: Radon-222 + decay daughters, and also radium-226 dust mitigation is a good idea. Simply keeping those items sealed inside multiple plastic bags and/or with glass jars will mitigate contamination, especially for the ones that have missing crystals and glass faces. Putting activated charcoal/carbon inside said sealed containers will also "trap" much of the radium-226 decay progeny. The activated charcoal/carbon will become indirectly and stronly radioactive. Glass is also very good at stopping hard beta radiation. The radiation is less of a hazard than the actual radioactive material itself. Inhalation is the worst, followed by ingestion, and lastly, external exposure. Internal exposure is _far_ more hazardous than external exposure. 3: Invest in a 365 nm UV flashlight. This will work much better than the common 395 nm UV flashlight. The _less_ radioactive that the radium-226-lume is-the _longer_ and _brighter_ it will glow. The _more_ radioactive that the radium-226-lume is-the _shorter_ and _dimmer_ it will glow. Old military self-luminous items are often _much_ hotter than commercial items. And always, don't shine UV light directly into your eyes. Also, as a tip, check out decay chains and the specific activity of radioactive isotopes/radionuclides. Radium-226 has a half-life of 1600 years; 1 _gram_ of it = 1 _curie._ 1 _microgram_ = 1 _microcurie._ The amount/activity that these items have, will likely be in the tens of nanograms up to the tens of micrograms, at least. I know this reply is long. However, it should definitely help! Thank you for sharing this video! That's a beautiful radium-226-lumed collection!
That clock needs glass. Loose radium is a recipe for disaster. Everything nearby could get contaminated by daughter isotopes at that level of radium used, not to mention the radon it puts off.
If it isn't gone by now I would recommend keeping but storing the lume kits under sealed container and lead sheets. They are wonderful pieces of scientific and consumer product safety history but need to be handled accounting for exposure times and area monitoring. Great to see, problematic to own, wonderful to preserve.
Working on radium devices with nothing but the world's cheapest geiger counter is such a bad idea... You could get an adequate device for contamination sweeps for the price of just a few watches.
@@tomterry6924 It would tell you whether there are microscopic flecks of radium contaminating your workspace and posing an inhalation/ingestion risk...
Wait, you go around wearing these watches?!?!?! A CPM of 100 or less is fine, but I wouldn't want to keep anything over 1K CPM near me for more than a few minutes if possible.
Do you have an eBay shop you sell from? I’m very interested seeing what you decide to let go. I don’t collect watches but I do collect anything radioactive
@@tomterry6924 I know of a few people online who've synthesized/reconstituted radium paint for maximum authenticity with good success. If I ever got into radium watches I'd have to go that route out of rabid purism
Yeah, they used radium so the pilots or crew could see the instruments in the dark. Its scary but as long as he doesnt stay close for too long hes gonna be fine. I am more worried about the total ammount of radium he got there plus all the exposed paint that could flake off...
That’s awesome. If you invest in a more expensive detector that’s more sensitive those numbers will go WAY up (especially that clock).
Man your crazy, working with this amount of radium with nothing but a 100$ Geiger owww, get a contamination meter also a radon device would be cool i cant imagine the radon level in your place, also you should try to get a higher range counter, scintillator are nice you really get the dosage to see the risk
Oh man this is so cool but you should absolutely have a better device for checking for contamination
Wow! That is awesome! I love that kit at the end! That's the radium-226 (likely radium-226 sulfate-as a compound, being the active ingredient) that you mix with the copper-activated zinc sulfide! That's why your G-M counter was over-saturated, due to the "fold-back effect." You get right up to it, and the counts drop significantly. I have a few recommendations:
1: I'd get a much better G-M counter, like a Ludlum Model 3, 12, or 14C, with a "pancake" type detector tube, like the 44-7 probe. I'd also look for and alpha particle scintillation probe for said Ludlum Model 3, 12, 14C, which you can use various probes with the same ratemeter G-M counter. Keep the probes facing downward, and avoid touching these items; you don't want to contaminate your radiation detection instruments. These instruments are pricy, but far superior! Used ones are cheaper, but make sure that they work, and that they've been recently calibrated!
2: Radon-222 + decay daughters, and also radium-226 dust mitigation is a good idea. Simply keeping those items sealed inside multiple plastic bags and/or with glass jars will mitigate contamination, especially for the ones that have missing crystals and glass faces. Putting activated charcoal/carbon inside said sealed containers will also "trap" much of the radium-226 decay progeny. The activated charcoal/carbon will become indirectly and stronly radioactive. Glass is also very good at stopping hard beta radiation. The radiation is less of a hazard than the actual radioactive material itself. Inhalation is the worst, followed by ingestion, and lastly, external exposure. Internal exposure is _far_ more hazardous than external exposure.
3: Invest in a 365 nm UV flashlight. This will work much better than the common 395 nm UV flashlight. The _less_ radioactive that the radium-226-lume is-the _longer_ and _brighter_ it will glow. The _more_ radioactive that the radium-226-lume is-the _shorter_ and _dimmer_ it will glow. Old military self-luminous items are often _much_ hotter than commercial items. And always, don't shine UV light directly into your eyes.
Also, as a tip, check out decay chains and the specific activity of radioactive isotopes/radionuclides. Radium-226 has a half-life of 1600 years; 1 _gram_ of it = 1 _curie._ 1 _microgram_ = 1 _microcurie._ The amount/activity that these items have, will likely be in the tens of nanograms up to the tens of micrograms, at least.
I know this reply is long. However, it should definitely help! Thank you for sharing this video! That's a beautiful radium-226-lumed collection!
This is so dangerous, especially with the glsss off that clock.
That clock needs glass. Loose radium is a recipe for disaster. Everything nearby could get contaminated by daughter isotopes at that level of radium used, not to mention the radon it puts off.
If it isn't gone by now I would recommend keeping but storing the lume kits under sealed container and lead sheets. They are wonderful pieces of scientific and consumer product safety history but need to be handled accounting for exposure times and area monitoring. Great to see, problematic to own, wonderful to preserve.
Yeah, just taking a reading of that empty case the clock was in is probably enough to make you want to turn around and walk the other way
Working on radium devices with nothing but the world's cheapest geiger counter is such a bad idea...
You could get an adequate device for contamination sweeps for the price of just a few watches.
Tells me all I need to know. What would a more expensive meter tell me?
@@tomterry6924 It would tell you whether there are microscopic flecks of radium contaminating your workspace and posing an inhalation/ingestion risk...
@@tomterry6924 the radiacode 102 is a very good geiger counter ;)
@@tomterry6924 the time
Wait, you go around wearing these watches?!?!?! A CPM of 100 or less is fine, but I wouldn't want to keep anything over 1K CPM near me for more than a few minutes if possible.
Wow, 100k cpm!😱 Lovely🤓
Do you have an eBay shop you sell from? I’m very interested seeing what you decide to let go. I don’t collect watches but I do collect anything radioactive
Are you selling any of it?
that's insane, are you selling any of it though?
Would any of the kits work for luming dials today, or are they all pre-mixed (and thus degraded)?
No glow from it at all. The modern stuff works great.
@@tomterry6924 I know of a few people online who've synthesized/reconstituted radium paint for maximum authenticity with good success. If I ever got into radium watches I'd have to go that route out of rabid purism
❤❤❤❤ wow love 💝
Psssst.
Hey... Buddy... You wanna buy a WATCH?
Is there a proper way of disposing watches that have radium? Getting into watch repair as a hobby.
I wouldn't dispose of them. Radioactive enthusiasts will buy those. Even for ones that don't work, can make good check sources.
4:40 Please tell me that's a joke, or my limited understanding of radiation is just causing me to worry.
Is that a Radium dial?
Yeah, they used radium so the pilots or crew could see the instruments in the dark.
Its scary but as long as he doesnt stay close for too long hes gonna be fine.
I am more worried about the total ammount of radium he got there plus all the exposed paint that could flake off...
@@yaykruser I have a radium dial but it's enclosed. It's nothing like this tho.
That, and the radium decay chain products contaminating the room.@@yaykruser
WHOAH 😮