in 1987 I remember watching that HBO special about the women who painted the dials in radium and the geiger counter went off big time as they were waving it across the womens graves. some of the women painted their faces in radium paint...
People, remeber that these measurements are in micro-sieverts. Thes are shown as uSv. Milisieverts are shown as mSv and sieverts are shown as Sv. You should only worry about radiation levels in the mSv's and Sv's as they can be harmful to health if exposed to them for relatively long periods.1 uSv=1 millionth of sievert. 1mSv=1 thousandth of a sievert. Plus these are uSv per hour. Anyway, great find Bionerd! I have many of these at home. I even have one that measures up to 100uSv!
Why are you pissing about with radium dial watches? If you pop the glass the airborne radiatiation is quite easy to inhale. Strange! Interesting vid though. I'm not sure why!
You can actually take of the glass of the watch in the left lower corner quite easily. Maybe you could try measuring that watch without the glass, so you can also detect alpha radiation? Would be cool :-)
Scary! I had a watch that glowed in the dark in the early 60's when I was a preteen. I also had some strips from the plastic factory down the street that glowed in the dark. I used to put these things close to my eyes in the dark after exposing them to light to make them glow. I wore the watch daily for at least a year. So far, no sign of radiation damage.
Ive got that watch in the left lower corner, that metallic one. Bought it yesterday for testing my DRSB-01. And Ive got a question. What radiation are you measuring in the video, alpha, beta, or gamma? Or all three? I guess theres only beta and gamma coming through.
@Doppelbuckel You're right, alpha is very tricky to detect. I don't know what sort of radiac meter she is using but I don't know if there is one that can detect all three. I would like a little more information on that meter. Radium is primarily an alpha emitter I thought
I have a vial of radium paint which is in a powdered form. It needs to be mixed with an adhesive base, which has long since dried up. The powder measures around 80K cpm through the glass of the vial.
it's a gamma scout, google for that. however, i think a simple (and much cheaper) geiger counter would suffice for you, just look "geiger counter" up on ebay, there are always some around.
@bionerd23 The company Bicron makes radiac meters but they are expensive to buy. They run a couple of hundred dollars. The Ludlum company makes them as well. You will find those in general use everywhere in the nuclear industry
radium from this paint - due to the presence of the many daughter nuclides - is an alpha, beta, and gamma emitter. radium itself is an alpha emitter, though.
I don't mean to judge, but you didn't buy those watches to take them apart did you? i hate it when people do that and call it "altered art" its simply destroying antiques.
i hope to get one of them running correctly (for 24+ hours while being accurate) again one day, so i can wear it. however, i think it should be left to the owner what they do with stuff; believe me, it e.g. breaks my heart when people discard radioactive material because they're scared of it, so it just gets dumped somewhere... but yeah, it's their stuff, i guess.
mechanical watch repair is very simple once you get used to it! try taking a few of the lesser value ones appart and you'll notice that they are very servicable and components are often compatible
so i think i may have gotten ripped off somewhere and i would just like to get some info. is radium in watch hands an alpha or a beta emitter? i ordered some hands and a geiger counter. my geiger counter measures beta and gamma no alpha. the counter isnt picking up a reading from the hands so i figured they were alpha emitters but then i heard they were beta so i became confused.
radium is an alpha emitter. however, the excited-stage daughter nuclides also emit very penetrating (hard) gamma radiation, and some of the daughter nuclides are beta emitters, too - so basically, yeah, you should be able to pick up alpha, beta and gamma from radium watches.
@bionerd23 Ohhh that makes sense. they said the hands were very new so the atoms have not had a chance to decay into a more detectable daughter product.
Tritium basically replaced radium as a watch dial/hand lumination paint. On watches from the 1960s if it's Tritium painted it will have a T on the bottom of the dial. A Bulova watch dial for example may have T-Swiss-T on the bottom denoting tritium. I believe tritium has a half life of about 14 years while radium is well over 1000 years!
I remember when i was a kid in the 1950s my dad would be lieing down on the living room couch taking a nap in the dark.....I could see the numbers on his watch glowing like an atomic bomb from clear across the room
Thanks for the reply! I went "Radium Watch Hunting" yesterday at an Army Salvation store. I looked around for anything, like Fiestaware, Depression Glass, etc, but didn't find any of that, until I came across a glass cabinet with a ton of used watches! Most of them were new, but I found 2 really hot ones; a Timex and a Bulova. They don't work, but it was worth it! I brought my Terra-P & UV light! The watch lady thought I was crazy, lol... The Bulova is really small, but hot! Thanks A Lot! =)
5/5! Very Nice! I've been collecting watch hands, toggle switches, and bought a Military Luminous "Marker" Radium Disk Button. The Marker gives off about 1mSv/h, B & y only! My CDV measures 20mR/h (Beta Closed on X100). It's about 1.5in. Diameter x 1/4in H. It says on the back: POISON INSIDE. My mother found a watch her parents had, and I knew 1 was painted with radium. It's probably from the 20's or 30's, and it's still a bit hot. The "Marker" gives off A LOT of scintillations in the dark!
I'll take them! There not dangerous. Radium-226 is the most common isotope used with the paint, and is a alpha emitter. Alpha won't even pierce the skin, or even go through the glass on the watch. The decay products is mostly Radon-222, which only has a half-life of ~8 days. It emits some Beta and Gamma during decay. There's nothing to worry about having these watches. My grandfather still wears his, and he's fine. A lot of people do. Running, say, a homemade X-ray machine is different.
yeah, usually just on the numbers and dials. it used to "glow" using ZnS when the watches were manufactured... however, the very alpha radiation that made it luminescent also destroyed the crystal structure and thus, it is no longer "glowing" after all these years.
@inthebehljahr It varies from clock to clock. On some of them, the numbers, hands, etc. are painted, but on some, only the hands are painted. When new, the clock would glow a pretty, bright green. The glow is the result of the alphas hitting the phosphor in the paint. Radium paint was also used on aircraft gauges and dials for the same purpose.
its not5 dangerous to hav it during a day or even a week but after a mounth you would start to be ill without knowing it after years you would be ill and decades die
I would NOT wear that considering the extreme radioactivity of those suckers. It will give you bone cancer and it will break down the bone marrow, and that is a painful way to die! Imagine getting a broken bone and it never healing because of the blood cell shortage.
nah, the dose is way too low for that. of course, any amount of radiation in theory increases your risk for cancer, but that is just stochastic damage; it does not noticeably cause any defects or changes in bone marrow nor skin when you wear a radium watch.
I went to an antique shop and I wanted to measure gamma rays of a clock that had light green watch dials. the dude was russian and was like "go away " and he wanted to call security.He said that I can measure it once I buy it!Might it be radium so I should buy it?
take your geiger counter to peru , illinois . take to the center of town. you won't have to hold it up to anything. it will go off just standing their .
mild radiation sickness starts from acute doses of 200 mSv (reduced blood cell count). 3000-4000 mSv produced severe radiation syndrome and death of 50% of patients within a month. severe internal bleeding and diarrhea occur. 10.000 mSv will lead to inevitable death, usually within seven days and accompanied by most severe bleedings, confusion, coma, collapse of the central nervous system. over 50.000 mSv kills within minutes or hours at maximum, depending on dose.
hey bionerd I just found your page and I really like your style, maybe you will find my videos of some enjoyment to yourself, anyways I will be watching more of your videos and rating them, keep up the great worok my new friend
i wasnt spamming my keyboard kept jamming and making my english and grammar very poor, it was actually something very important I wanted to explain to you about einsteins e=mc^2 and its relationship to radioactive elements such as radium, believe it or not Einstein was wrong about mass and energy equivalence!
If you really want to find some "interesting" watches you need to hunt for early military issue POCKET watches. Those give up to 30mSv per hour, I was amazed first time I checked the watches we had for an upcoming papers, the wrist watches were weak in comparison.
The majority of it is gamma, yes, but remember that there is beta and gamma present in those thanks to the daughter products. They did not paint on with pure radium, so it has a mixture of radionuclides.
The military ones tend to have a ton more radium on them, since lets be fair the legislation on radiation has only become more severe within the last 40 years.
no, i meant if its 30 uSv/h of gamma radiation, because that'd be a lot, but if it's 30 uSv/h alpha, beta and gamma combined, then my watches are about the same.
it is pure Ra226 with ZnS (zincsulfide for the luminescence) painted on the watches, no other radionuclides included. but, as radium decays all the time, there will be the daughternuclides present as 'contamination'.
as radium is mainly an alpha emitter, 30uSv/h of alpha, beta and gamma radiation is not special, while 30 uSv/h of gamma only would suggest a much higher radium content (and much higher readings of alpha radiation, if measured).
Really really interesting.. I remember late 80´s and in the beginning of the 90´s where we had to shelter in some cind of bunker due to russian radioactivity-cloud in school... that "ticking" noise sure bring back some memories... :D
This is big a part of my interests so you just had yourself a subscriber...
thank you for subscribing! i'm glad you like my videos, even though the memory that "ticking" gives you is probably not the nicest memory to have. o_O
it's a decay product of all natural decay chains (thorium 232, uranium 238, uranium 235). radium 226, which occurs in the uranium 238 decay chain, is suitable for applications like 'glowing paint', as it has a half-time of 1500 years.
Gutes video aber hast du du eigentlich deine Sachen schonwieder zurück du hattest nämlich bei einem video gesagt das das alles weg ist `stimmt das ? und hast du schon alles wieder zurück=?
yep - das habe ich auch schon bei dem video gesagt (als comment), ich habe zum glueck alles wieder zurueck und ne schoene neue wohnung wo ich endlich ALLEINE wohnen kann. wunderbar. :-D
yeah, heard about that, too. also, cobalt 60 gets into scrap metal on a frequent basis, so some random household item may be radioactive, too... though we have very thorough checks in germany, so it's rather unlikely here, but it DOES happen.
thanx for that-you should have told the shopkeeper your mad about radioactive elements and that your doing him a favour by removing them from his shop-you might have got them cheaper.lol =]
not sure about that - he may have said he's not going to sell them then as that's too dangerous AND / OR he wouldnt sell them because he noticed they're of value, OR he would've started to scream and called the police to get them to decontaminate his shop, OR as you mentioned, he'd be glad i'd take them. kinda risky... i'll do it if i find more watches that are NOT working and NOT highly radioactive in another shop though, because if i dont get them, there's not so much lost...
NOPE. most recent watches - that is, built from ~1970 on - use phosphorous, which is a totally harmless substance that will only glow for a short time if not exposed to light again... much like the radium now, but the radium USED to glow by itself. if you have a watch that continues to glow even after a day in the dark and it's a new watch, it most likely contains the radioactive hydrogen isotope tritium - but there are also promethium watches that glow due to radioluminescence.
those are comparably rare though, so chances are that a watch that 'glows' contains the above mentioned phosphorous, which is used in decorating children's rooms with stars, or UV-light color... and certainly not radioactive. :-)
as i said, you can test this by putting the watch into complete (!) darkness for a day. if it still glows, it should contain a radioactive element. if not, it's most likely phosphorous (or can be radium, if it's an old watch).
yeah, i was lucky, i guess - maybe flea markets will be better. sometimes, people just sell their grandfather's watch without having a clue what it is.
Heheh way cool! I bet that working Ra watch was made in West Germany =P. I should try the "testing the alloy" excuse next time I go to a flea market, I'd really love to have a watch like that!
uhm, yes, west germany, of course. is east germany even a part of germany? o_O
just kidding. ;-)
i wonder if the guy went to check what his watches are on the internet by now... hmm, but i doubt it. he's not that kind of guy. if you do this alloy testing thing, let me know what happened, lol. darn, i should record this with a hidden camera some day, its hillarious. =)
doesnt this kill you?
jarocho151 2 weeks ago
in 1987 I remember watching that HBO special about the women who painted the dials in radium and the geiger counter went off big time as they were waving it across the womens graves. some of the women painted their faces in radium paint...
ThePigfloyd 1 month ago
how much do u think i can get a radiation scanner for? because i collect radioactive substances.
MrInsects 2 months ago
People, remeber that these measurements are in micro-sieverts. Thes are shown as uSv. Milisieverts are shown as mSv and sieverts are shown as Sv. You should only worry about radiation levels in the mSv's and Sv's as they can be harmful to health if exposed to them for relatively long periods.1 uSv=1 millionth of sievert. 1mSv=1 thousandth of a sievert. Plus these are uSv per hour. Anyway, great find Bionerd! I have many of these at home. I even have one that measures up to 100uSv!
BWIENS789 9 months ago
Why are you pissing about with radium dial watches? If you pop the glass the airborne radiatiation is quite easy to inhale. Strange! Interesting vid though. I'm not sure why!
Regards!
Vot63 10 months ago
You can actually take of the glass of the watch in the left lower corner quite easily. Maybe you could try measuring that watch without the glass, so you can also detect alpha radiation? Would be cool :-)
Doppelbuckel 11 months ago
Scary! I had a watch that glowed in the dark in the early 60's when I was a preteen. I also had some strips from the plastic factory down the street that glowed in the dark. I used to put these things close to my eyes in the dark after exposing them to light to make them glow. I wore the watch daily for at least a year. So far, no sign of radiation damage.
wiseroldfart 11 months ago
Ive got that watch in the left lower corner, that metallic one. Bought it yesterday for testing my DRSB-01. And Ive got a question. What radiation are you measuring in the video, alpha, beta, or gamma? Or all three? I guess theres only beta and gamma coming through.
Doppelbuckel 11 months ago
@Doppelbuckel
yep, deffo just beta + gamma; the hourglass will shield alpha radiation to 100%.
bionerd23 11 months ago
@Doppelbuckel You're right, alpha is very tricky to detect. I don't know what sort of radiac meter she is using but I don't know if there is one that can detect all three. I would like a little more information on that meter. Radium is primarily an alpha emitter I thought
vk92007 6 months ago
y do u want it O_O
iToasterman 11 months ago
Hello. Can you tell me the names of the makes (brands) of those watches. Thanks.
majster667 1 year ago
very good
hildman5 1 year ago
Its called nuclear reaction watches (NRW) And no, they aren't radioactive because they kind of "Trick" to the radioactive meter.
TheDragonblade999 1 year ago
@TheDragonblade999 یعنی چی؟
zederish 11 months ago
I have a vial of radium paint which is in a powdered form. It needs to be mixed with an adhesive base, which has long since dried up. The powder measures around 80K cpm through the glass of the vial.
Barnekkid 1 year ago
Where can I get one of those meters? I about 2 dozens of those vintage watches, and most of them have glowing dots.
DarilVanHorn 1 year ago
@DarilVanHorn
it's a gamma scout, google for that. however, i think a simple (and much cheaper) geiger counter would suffice for you, just look "geiger counter" up on ebay, there are always some around.
bionerd23 1 year ago
@bionerd23 TERRA-P. (First time I will see a real-life Geiger counter, and first time Mum saw one)
jjovereats 1 year ago
@bionerd23 The company Bicron makes radiac meters but they are expensive to buy. They run a couple of hundred dollars. The Ludlum company makes them as well. You will find those in general use everywhere in the nuclear industry
vk92007 6 months ago
great to wear if you want cancer.. why not wear a tritium watch? they made those aswell in the 50's and have much less radiation
schoont 1 year ago
does radium give off beta or gamma rays? my meter is a CD V-700 and doesn't measure alpha rays.
mashersmasher 1 year ago
@mashersmasher
radium from this paint - due to the presence of the many daughter nuclides - is an alpha, beta, and gamma emitter. radium itself is an alpha emitter, though.
bionerd23 1 year ago
Do you know where I will get Radium TShirts or Radium stickers which I can use to make Radium T shirts
idealcoordinators 1 year ago
I don't mean to judge, but you didn't buy those watches to take them apart did you? i hate it when people do that and call it "altered art" its simply destroying antiques.
gamaroy 1 year ago
@gamaroy
nah, the radium content wouldnt even be worth it.
i hope to get one of them running correctly (for 24+ hours while being accurate) again one day, so i can wear it. however, i think it should be left to the owner what they do with stuff; believe me, it e.g. breaks my heart when people discard radioactive material because they're scared of it, so it just gets dumped somewhere... but yeah, it's their stuff, i guess.
bionerd23 1 year ago
@bionerd23
mechanical watch repair is very simple once you get used to it! try taking a few of the lesser value ones appart and you'll notice that they are very servicable and components are often compatible
mashersmasher 1 year ago
@mashersmasher
hmm, if you say so... i might look into that. thanks ;)
bionerd23 1 year ago
so i think i may have gotten ripped off somewhere and i would just like to get some info. is radium in watch hands an alpha or a beta emitter? i ordered some hands and a geiger counter. my geiger counter measures beta and gamma no alpha. the counter isnt picking up a reading from the hands so i figured they were alpha emitters but then i heard they were beta so i became confused.
ballonman124 1 year ago
@ballonman124
radium is an alpha emitter. however, the excited-stage daughter nuclides also emit very penetrating (hard) gamma radiation, and some of the daughter nuclides are beta emitters, too - so basically, yeah, you should be able to pick up alpha, beta and gamma from radium watches.
bionerd23 1 year ago
@bionerd23 Ohhh that makes sense. they said the hands were very new so the atoms have not had a chance to decay into a more detectable daughter product.
ballonman124 1 year ago
Tritium basically replaced radium as a watch dial/hand lumination paint. On watches from the 1960s if it's Tritium painted it will have a T on the bottom of the dial. A Bulova watch dial for example may have T-Swiss-T on the bottom denoting tritium. I believe tritium has a half life of about 14 years while radium is well over 1000 years!
ghtriumph 1 year ago
@ghtriumph
yeah, that's roughly correct. :)
interesting info!
bionerd23 1 year ago
I remember when i was a kid in the 1950s my dad would be lieing down on the living room couch taking a nap in the dark.....I could see the numbers on his watch glowing like an atomic bomb from clear across the room
inkey2 1 year ago
Thanks for the reply! I went "Radium Watch Hunting" yesterday at an Army Salvation store. I looked around for anything, like Fiestaware, Depression Glass, etc, but didn't find any of that, until I came across a glass cabinet with a ton of used watches! Most of them were new, but I found 2 really hot ones; a Timex and a Bulova. They don't work, but it was worth it! I brought my Terra-P & UV light! The watch lady thought I was crazy, lol... The Bulova is really small, but hot! Thanks A Lot! =)
KarbineKyle 2 years ago
5/5! Very Nice! I've been collecting watch hands, toggle switches, and bought a Military Luminous "Marker" Radium Disk Button. The Marker gives off about 1mSv/h, B & y only! My CDV measures 20mR/h (Beta Closed on X100). It's about 1.5in. Diameter x 1/4in H. It says on the back: POISON INSIDE. My mother found a watch her parents had, and I knew 1 was painted with radium. It's probably from the 20's or 30's, and it's still a bit hot. The "Marker" gives off A LOT of scintillations in the dark!
KarbineKyle 2 years ago
wow, 1 mSv/h, that's crazy! very lucky find, i'd love to have such hot piece of radium myself. =)
bionerd23 2 years ago
the "baby ben" clocks made by westclox are pretty hot, radioactively speaking. I have two of them. It makes my old geiger counter really tick.
PsychoticBovine 2 years ago
Okay...
From now on,i will discard all my watches which are radioactive...
Those are dangerous !
jackycck2222 2 years ago
I'll take them! There not dangerous. Radium-226 is the most common isotope used with the paint, and is a alpha emitter. Alpha won't even pierce the skin, or even go through the glass on the watch. The decay products is mostly Radon-222, which only has a half-life of ~8 days. It emits some Beta and Gamma during decay. There's nothing to worry about having these watches. My grandfather still wears his, and he's fine. A lot of people do. Running, say, a homemade X-ray machine is different.
KarbineKyle 2 years ago
is the radium only in the face of the watch, the numbers and so forth? And for what purpose?
inthebehljahr 2 years ago
yeah, usually just on the numbers and dials. it used to "glow" using ZnS when the watches were manufactured... however, the very alpha radiation that made it luminescent also destroyed the crystal structure and thus, it is no longer "glowing" after all these years.
bionerd23 2 years ago
@inthebehljahr It varies from clock to clock. On some of them, the numbers, hands, etc. are painted, but on some, only the hands are painted. When new, the clock would glow a pretty, bright green. The glow is the result of the alphas hitting the phosphor in the paint. Radium paint was also used on aircraft gauges and dials for the same purpose.
pyromaniak97 1 year ago
you can return to russian antique shop when everyone died from cancer maybe wait few more years
jeuxpclol101 2 years ago
its not5 dangerous to hav it during a day or even a week but after a mounth you would start to be ill without knowing it after years you would be ill and decades die
jeuxpclol101 2 years ago
today the same thing happend to me :].
here in colombia we have tons of those watches at antiqe shops
rclvb 2 years ago
I would NOT wear that considering the extreme radioactivity of those suckers. It will give you bone cancer and it will break down the bone marrow, and that is a painful way to die! Imagine getting a broken bone and it never healing because of the blood cell shortage.
nnelson93 2 years ago 2
nah, the dose is way too low for that. of course, any amount of radiation in theory increases your risk for cancer, but that is just stochastic damage; it does not noticeably cause any defects or changes in bone marrow nor skin when you wear a radium watch.
bionerd23 2 years ago
I went to an antique shop and I wanted to measure gamma rays of a clock that had light green watch dials. the dude was russian and was like "go away " and he wanted to call security.He said that I can measure it once I buy it!Might it be radium so I should buy it?
JaksProductions 2 years ago
take your geiger counter to peru , illinois . take to the center of town. you won't have to hold it up to anything. it will go off just standing their .
weitzfc1 2 years ago
Is Peru near Ottawa Ill, or are they the same place?
Rickertsred 2 years ago
radium dial company in peru, illinois. radium was found to cause bone cancer in workers(usually women) and birth defects in children.
weitzfc1 2 years ago
Hey, do you know what would be a lethal dose of pure gamma radiation over a period of one day and over one hour?
combine988 2 years ago
depends on the person and time; a couple of sieverts. i'd say between 2-8 sieverts should be enough to kill somebody, if exposed within up to a day.
bionerd23 2 years ago
AWESOME!! i want like that too! BTW do you know a place i can get shortwave uv light? plz reply! great video BTW!!
Stargate988 2 years ago
i dont have sw-uv myself, so i'm not sure. maybe ebay.
bionerd23 2 years ago
you should get it! It's awesome!!!! just remember uvc proof glasses ^^
Stargate988 2 years ago
What is the Lethal amount of radiation?
kingdemon815 2 years ago
mild radiation sickness starts from acute doses of 200 mSv (reduced blood cell count). 3000-4000 mSv produced severe radiation syndrome and death of 50% of patients within a month. severe internal bleeding and diarrhea occur. 10.000 mSv will lead to inevitable death, usually within seven days and accompanied by most severe bleedings, confusion, coma, collapse of the central nervous system. over 50.000 mSv kills within minutes or hours at maximum, depending on dose.
bionerd23 2 years ago
Comment removed
sn1pe352 2 years ago
hey bionerd I just found your page and I really like your style, maybe you will find my videos of some enjoyment to yourself, anyways I will be watching more of your videos and rating them, keep up the great worok my new friend
Namaste
Nicholas Ellis
sn1pe352 2 years ago
that's enough spamming, seriously. post once, and it's fine, but stop posting and then deleting your comments all the time.
bionerd23 2 years ago
i wasnt spamming my keyboard kept jamming and making my english and grammar very poor, it was actually something very important I wanted to explain to you about einsteins e=mc^2 and its relationship to radioactive elements such as radium, believe it or not Einstein was wrong about mass and energy equivalence!
sn1pe352 2 years ago
oh, okay. then please do so, but once, and check the spelling / grammar BEFORE clicking 'post comment'. ;-)
thanks!
bionerd23 2 years ago
Comment removed
sn1pe352 2 years ago
If you really want to find some "interesting" watches you need to hunt for early military issue POCKET watches. Those give up to 30mSv per hour, I was amazed first time I checked the watches we had for an upcoming papers, the wrist watches were weak in comparison.
corvardus 2 years ago
I mean 30µSv, obviously! :)
corvardus 2 years ago
lol i was just gonna say!
is that gamma only, then?
bionerd23 2 years ago
The majority of it is gamma, yes, but remember that there is beta and gamma present in those thanks to the daughter products. They did not paint on with pure radium, so it has a mixture of radionuclides.
The military ones tend to have a ton more radium on them, since lets be fair the legislation on radiation has only become more severe within the last 40 years.
corvardus 2 years ago
no, i meant if its 30 uSv/h of gamma radiation, because that'd be a lot, but if it's 30 uSv/h alpha, beta and gamma combined, then my watches are about the same.
bionerd23 2 years ago
it is pure Ra226 with ZnS (zincsulfide for the luminescence) painted on the watches, no other radionuclides included. but, as radium decays all the time, there will be the daughternuclides present as 'contamination'.
as radium is mainly an alpha emitter, 30uSv/h of alpha, beta and gamma radiation is not special, while 30 uSv/h of gamma only would suggest a much higher radium content (and much higher readings of alpha radiation, if measured).
bionerd23 2 years ago
Really really interesting.. I remember late 80´s and in the beginning of the 90´s where we had to shelter in some cind of bunker due to russian radioactivity-cloud in school... that "ticking" noise sure bring back some memories... :D
This is big a part of my interests so you just had yourself a subscriber...
Decnet01 2 years ago
thank you for subscribing! i'm glad you like my videos, even though the memory that "ticking" gives you is probably not the nicest memory to have. o_O
bionerd23 2 years ago
Are you talking about Chernobyl? That was in 1986.
corvardus 2 years ago
at least its not cobalt 60 :<O
projectdelta50 2 years ago
what's worse than radium 226 about cobalt 60?
bionerd23 2 years ago
what is radium exactly?
qwasymotto 2 years ago
radium is an alkalimetal, it has 2 electrons ad is in the 2nd min group of the periodic table/its radioactive
Blinkwing 2 years ago
it's a decay product of all natural decay chains (thorium 232, uranium 238, uranium 235). radium 226, which occurs in the uranium 238 decay chain, is suitable for applications like 'glowing paint', as it has a half-time of 1500 years.
bionerd23 2 years ago
Gutes video aber hast du du eigentlich deine Sachen schonwieder zurück du hattest nämlich bei einem video gesagt das das alles weg ist `stimmt das ? und hast du schon alles wieder zurück=?
rico199400 2 years ago
yep - das habe ich auch schon bei dem video gesagt (als comment), ich habe zum glueck alles wieder zurueck und ne schoene neue wohnung wo ich endlich ALLEINE wohnen kann. wunderbar. :-D
bionerd23 2 years ago
how about checking some cheap chinese diecast for DU?
ive heard some stories...
m3sca1 2 years ago
yeah, heard about that, too. also, cobalt 60 gets into scrap metal on a frequent basis, so some random household item may be radioactive, too... though we have very thorough checks in germany, so it's rather unlikely here, but it DOES happen.
bionerd23 2 years ago
thanx for that-you should have told the shopkeeper your mad about radioactive elements and that your doing him a favour by removing them from his shop-you might have got them cheaper.lol =]
m3sca1 2 years ago
not sure about that - he may have said he's not going to sell them then as that's too dangerous AND / OR he wouldnt sell them because he noticed they're of value, OR he would've started to scream and called the police to get them to decontaminate his shop, OR as you mentioned, he'd be glad i'd take them. kinda risky... i'll do it if i find more watches that are NOT working and NOT highly radioactive in another shop though, because if i dont get them, there's not so much lost...
bionerd23 2 years ago
I hope I will find an antique shop in Estonia where I could get radium watches :).
JaksProductions 2 years ago
lol yeah i see your point
m3sca1 2 years ago
ohh wow... i have a crap load of watches and clocks which have radium coating..... theyre truly awesome.....
does anyone know if all glow in the dark things use radium???
Pada007gangster 2 years ago
NOPE. most recent watches - that is, built from ~1970 on - use phosphorous, which is a totally harmless substance that will only glow for a short time if not exposed to light again... much like the radium now, but the radium USED to glow by itself. if you have a watch that continues to glow even after a day in the dark and it's a new watch, it most likely contains the radioactive hydrogen isotope tritium - but there are also promethium watches that glow due to radioluminescence.
bionerd23 2 years ago
those are comparably rare though, so chances are that a watch that 'glows' contains the above mentioned phosphorous, which is used in decorating children's rooms with stars, or UV-light color... and certainly not radioactive. :-)
as i said, you can test this by putting the watch into complete (!) darkness for a day. if it still glows, it should contain a radioactive element. if not, it's most likely phosphorous (or can be radium, if it's an old watch).
bionerd23 2 years ago
Its amazing that you got that stuff! i went radium 'hunting' at several antique stores and i didnt come up with anything.
jrbpyro101 2 years ago
yeah, i was lucky, i guess - maybe flea markets will be better. sometimes, people just sell their grandfather's watch without having a clue what it is.
bionerd23 2 years ago
Heheh way cool! I bet that working Ra watch was made in West Germany =P. I should try the "testing the alloy" excuse next time I go to a flea market, I'd really love to have a watch like that!
AScannerClearly 2 years ago
uhm, yes, west germany, of course. is east germany even a part of germany? o_O
just kidding. ;-)
i wonder if the guy went to check what his watches are on the internet by now... hmm, but i doubt it. he's not that kind of guy. if you do this alloy testing thing, let me know what happened, lol. darn, i should record this with a hidden camera some day, its hillarious. =)
bionerd23 2 years ago
Your Amazing!
puresubscriber 2 years ago