Radium watch dial, Timex

[ballonman124]

Ha ha when the red dot comes on you know your in trouble.

[bringmethehorizon850]

if it went off the chart i would highly suggest not touching the damn thing ro getting near it

[nostalgiajunkie70]

In 1917 Ingersoll watch advertised "one can tell the time by the "Radiolite's" glowing hands and figures, which are coated with a new substance containing genuine radium in minute proportions". But it was the girls in the different watch factories who kept putting the tip of the brush in their mouth that got sick and died. There are office buildings still in use today that used to be radium labs but have been "decontaminated".....Is that really possible?

[nostalgiajunkie70]

In 1917 Ingersoll watch advertised "one can tell the time by the "Radiolite's" glowing hands and figures, which are coated with a new substance containing genuine radium in minute proportions". But it was the girls in the different watch factories who kept putting the tip of the brush in their mouth that got sick and died. There are office buildings still in use today that used to be radium labs but have been "decontaminated".....Is that really possible?

[avianmosquito]

Yes, they're that oversensitive. A harmless wristwatch will set them off.

If you hold them up to the sun, they'll squeal. (Which doesn't make much sense.)

[CTSabotage]

lmao *BEEEEEEP*

I love how it does that... but dude, thats scary considering how people wear watches and dont even know if they are radiated or not O_o

Not even just watches, all kinds of stuff too...

Shit... I need a Geiger Counter :P

[KarbineKyle]

Awesome! I'm into the same thing too. I like the Geiger Counter with the Pancake Probe, it's very useful, since it picks up the Alpha too, not just Beta and Gamma, like most Geiger counters! Radium-226, (the most abundant) is an Alpha emitter, but with a piece of paper or foil over the screen, it would deflect all the Alpha particles, and it wouldn't be anywhere near that high of a reading! I'm getting an old Radium Button, (about the size of a nickel), and it will be extremely high! Nice!!

[wauquelin]

Yikes.

[CAESARbonds]

@wauquelin

Yes very scary such a radioactive watch.

[sleeper554]

i once dropped and old radium-coated watch in the toilet and it exploded beacause radium reatcesvery violently with water.

[sleeper554]

i still have a watch like that, which i wear everywhere. oops...

[DidntKnowWhatToPut1]

@sleeper554

They cause bone cancer, stop wearing it

[ketchupisevil]

I love that click.

[comanderkuddles]

jesus fucking christ how did peoples hands not fall offafter waring that for more than 10 inutes

[inkey2]

i restore vintage watches. A number of times I have restored old watches that have radium dials. Many were so radio active that the image of the radium numbers painted on the dial actually burnt their image on to the plastic crystal

[paulwes1983]

That's pretty scary cause that's a pretty high wave count. I can't believe people used to wear those on their wrists all the time.

[nepssis]

I can't believe that it's so radioactive!

[kataklysm696]

From 1925 to 1935 Ra-227 was used widespreaded in a lot of actions. People had no idea about the toxic from ionisation radiation. So here in germany people spend their holidays in swimmingpools filled with Radiumwater (not Radon..really Radium)!!! In USA people could buy a water named RADIOTHOR in Drugstors. Google after that...you can`t believed it. A lot of people suffered from death

[ELFHUNTER50]

u can make a nuclear reactor if u dip the time needles in some water and it glows in the dark !! =)

[tommyvine]

where did you get that geiger counter

[ethen24]

I sleep with my watch on, but I wouldn't want to sleep with that watch!

I wouldn't even want to be near it! lol

[mnpd007]

Tritium is the safe substitute, but has a 7 year half-life, unlike Radium's 1500 years. So, your tritium dials will die out out soon. If you've had a Tritium watch for a few years, you've probably already noticed that it no longer glows.

People who wore Radium painted watches sometimes received inexplicable skin burns. The girls who painted Radium on the dials and hands at the old watch factories would wet the brush tips with their mouths. And, they died later of radiation sickness.

[inkey2]

to mnpd007: and do you remember the "rest of the story"? The watch factory was concerned about all the deaths of their dial painters. The story (legend?) goes that they started digging up the bodies years later for further testing. Supposedly it was at night so as not to arouse any attention. When they shined the flashlight in the open coffins it caused the skeletons to "glow in the dark". I actually heard this story when I was a kid, from my older sister. An Urban Legend?

[MousouMachine]

Well bones glow in the dark naturally due to the phosphorus in them. but for all I know the story is likely true since radium acts like calcium when entering the human body and is deposited in bones. the watch painters you're told about were probably from the radium girls incident

[der1lowen]

Yep, the end was scary was'nt it? Amazing how ignorent we were and still are. Do you know that gun night sights are painted with radioactive paint (like Triji)? They have'nt found anything that glows in the dark better, without the need for light to recharge.

[der1lowen]

Yep, that is scary is'nt it? How ignorent we were, and still are. Do you know that gun sights that glow in the dark (like Trijicon) are also painted with radioactive paint? They have'nt found anything that glows in the dark better. Go figure.

[juliomaverick1976]

radium is present in all old watches?

How many years it was used? Watch of 20 years ago probable had this? My Seiko Is dangerous!? Heeeeelp!

[Groovyman12]

BECAUSE IT IS FUCKING RADIUM

[Ichinisan]

because radium is a really radioactive element.

[KLONIME1001]

too much radiation death

[bngbod]

There's a play about the Radium Girls called "These Shining Lives".....based on the true story.

[nelixnkes]

Actually my grandfather gave me an old radium watch when I was a kid and I loved it cause it glowed in the dark THE RADIOACTIVE DIAL.

[kurt84fstom2]

And people actually wore these things on their wrists for 8 hours a day???

[alanswatches]

Sometimes for more than 8 hours. Many people sleep with their watches on.

[conrad2468]

holy shit the end freaked me out...now im going to bring my geiger counter next time i buy a watch!!!

[yo6ial]

That counter has a huge sensitivity, and the dose would not be over 0.2-0.5mR/h, wouldn't it?

I mean that i can't register more than 1 or 2mR/h on my Radium enriched phosphorus coated compass, within a few millimeters from the probe...

[forwardbias]

Tritium is used in glowing watches now, an isotope of Hydrogen, a Beta emitter. Supposed to be much safter than Radium watches in the 20's. Would be interesting to test one of them, to see how safe Tritium watches really are.

[Ch3mG33k]

Tritium is MUCH safer than radium. It is still radioactive though...

[onlinemember2008]

Sounds like my Police Scanner

[eeltones]

Yikes.

[BlueHaloPhoenix]

A clicking geiger is the scariest sound by itself,the only thing more scarier is when it goes nut. ::shivers::

[kataklysm696]

Remember Chernobyl with 20.000 Roentgen/h 200 Sievert on the roof, i don`t want to hear this sound

[conrad2468]

the end scared the crap out of me it makes me feel sorry for all of the old folkes who have wrist cancer

[WesternWhiteWolf]

Wow. I've read about this before, but I've never actually seen it.

Where did you get the watch, and what does the red light on the geiger counter signify?

[Nimsoft]

It means you should probably eat the source.

[saijokus1]

and the amount added to the watch was only 1/600000.. can u imagine what marie went throguh :S

[utubeworms]

Wow! No wonder the employees that worked at Timex back then and painted their teeth with that stuff got cancer!

[OofusTwillip]

If you want to read something really scary, just Google "Radium Girls", to read the complete story of what happened to the employees who worked painting the luminous dials on airplane parts, back in the early years. There were no safety standards, and their jaws would literally fall off. Of course, the company tried to cover it up.

[OofusTwillip]

Actually, it wasn't Timex; it was US Radium, a hugely powerful company. When one of the girls would die from radium exposure, the company would claim she'd died of syphilis. It took years to find a lawyer willing to take on a huge suit against the company, & by the time they won, many of the plaintiffs were dead.

[tate386]

how many rs

[SuperFlanker35]

How much does an RM14 cost? (USD$)

[stephendonnelly88]

Fascinating. Just curious: what of what manufacturer and model is Geiger counter? Thanks! :-)

[alanswatches]

Eberline RM14

[SuperFlanker35]

Curious but how much does an RM14 cost?

[alanswatches]

I'm not sure, sorry.

[kestrel452]

An Eberline model RM-14, cool

[al2i]

Although the alpha emissions were all that were needed to cause the zinc phosphate to glow, and when laid flat that pancake detector was picking them up -- penetrating deadly radiation was also present, and detected when the detector was on the side. The first daughter product is Radon gas, so I would keep a watch dial like this hermetically sealed if it was in my home.

[mikes47jeep]

holy $hit!!! how it spikes at the end

[plan9c]

search in google for 'Radium Girls' and read more about the poor women which painted the dials in the 20's. horrible.

[KoroOutbreak]

And all this time I thought it was Communism that gave all those people cancer. Great submission.

[runnersc06]

i think it was zincsulfide

[IHAntonio]

jubia26, it is not pure Zinc, it was a combination of Zinc with another chemical. That combination was also called a phosphor, but it isnt phosphor. More info You can find more info by checking the word 'Phosphor' in wikipedia without the quotes.

[jubia26]

Actually it was not phosphor it was Radium and Zinc there was no phossphor in the plant at all

[nitrex]

Umm yes their was phosphorous and infact it was was zinc phosphate.

[IHAntonio]

Radium was used in the past in the watch hands to make them glow in the dark. It was user years ago, and is not used any more. The radiation of the radium make the phosphor react and glow in the dark.

[nitrex]

Yes the statement is correct but radiation doesnt react with the phosphorous compound. The alpha particles hit the phsophorous causing it to glow.

[IHAntonio]

Radium was put in watch hands in the past to make it 'Glow in the dark'. There was a mix of radium and a phosphor, that makes it glow in the dark. It is not used anymore in watches.

[Lyoko774]

I'm still wondering why they put Radium on watches..

[ilikehl2]

oh shi-

[volvoman440]

Very interesting content.

[rapljwop]

Why are there radioactive elements in a watch? It's dangerous! Please answer me someone.

[TeslaMaster]

They were used for illuminating the watch at night. Many vintage watches have greenish or whitish colored "paint" on the hands or on the numbers on the dial. This paint is quite likely made of a phosphorescent compound mixed with radium. This causes, or at least used to cause, the numbers and hands to glow in the dark.

[nitrex]

Because radium is an alpha emitter. The Radium bromide or Radium chloride which was mixed with the phosphorous compound gives a bright glow to the watch without using batteries so that a person is able to see in the dark. The alpha particles hit the phosphorous compound making it glow.

[stephendonnelly88]

The radioactive element Radium was added to the paint that was used on the watch's dial "face". It gave the face a luminous appearance.