Thorium Lamp Mantles

A nice Thorium-coated kerosene-lamp mantle from the brand "Aladdin", available at your local hardware store. I bought mine at Ace Hardware.

Hundreds of these, purchased by a man named David Hahn, were used as a Thorium source while Hahn was a teenager. He had purified the Thorium from them to 1000+ the levels found in nature.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Thorium
• 232
• gas
• lantern
• lamp
• mantle
• radioactive
• radiation
• alpha
• beta
• gamma
• particle
• ray
• david
• hahn
• geiger
• gammascout

[macgyver2210]

what meter are you using? what units are those readings in?

[JeremyBechen]

@macgyver2210 It's a GammaScout handheld dosimeter. The units it's displaying in the video are millirems, but it can also be set to display microsieverts.

[Palifiox]

Looks slightly alarming. But always light the mantles for the first time outside the home. How much beta and alpha radiation passes through the glass of the lamp? Not a lot, I would guess.

[JeremyBechen]

I doubt any of the alpha or beta radiation would pass through the glass. And the gamma radiation that comes as a byproduct of alpha emissions and of some of Thorium's daughter decay products would not even be a noticeable change above background "cosmic" radiation.

[southernrain1000]

I think the first clue that it would be radioactive would be the word THORIUM.

You didn't record the ambient radiation, duh. And, more importantly, is it at a dangerous level? I doubt it.

Did you know that you may have green colored glass in your home now that is radioactive? It was Uranium oxide and legal until 1948 to use to color glass. So, if you have an old glass antique, it may be spitting out a bit of radio waves.

I would not recommend breathing in the smoke from these mantles.

[iToasterman]

@antiprotons True

[antiprotons]

@iToasterman It isn't gamma or beta, but the specific radioactivity of the source which is the problem. My potassium salt, which I eat, emits beta radiation. I can detect 73 CPM from my can of potassium salt too. lol

It is not just the radiation, but the amount and the time.

[HexamineSmoke]

It's the radiation from the burnt mantle dust which is the danger.

[antiprotons]

lol Good job! I always wanted to run my GM over a latern mant. but I never got the chance.

[iToasterman]

@MillyVanillification no were near as dangerus as gama :s ganma knifes are worse....

[MillyVanillification]

@iToasterman Alpha is dangerous as well. As long as it's outside of your body you can keep a safe distance. But once you inhale or eat a small particles you'll find it hard to do that.