Radium watch makes Geiger counter go nuts

Found an old watch dial and tested it with my DRSB-01. It's, uh, radioactive. The green light ticks around once a second under normal conditions. The red light indicates abnormally high levels of radiation.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• radioactive
• radium
• geiger
• dosimeter
• watch
• northeastern
• marcus

[GingleGangle1]

How much cost these Geiger counters?

[mmoche]

It was very inexpensive, under $50 USD as I recall.

[Ballpythondude420]

where did you purchase it? I WANT ONE :)

[mmoche]

You can find them on eBay pretty regularly.

[Jyiannaros]

god that reminds me,

id hate to think what that gold watch did to christopher walken while he hid it up his ass for a decade

[Diamonddavej]

The workers who painted the watch/clock dials used to lick the ends of their paint brushes to make a sharp point - they had no idea of the danger.

[MrGameBomber]

wat the hell? i typed in alex rider: skeleton key, hit im feeling lucky and it bought me to this!

[Milesprower1100]

Its a good thing it was ONLY made in the 1800s

[xboxaddict1125]

@mmoche Not anymore!

[Ricky32908]

@Diamonddavej more correctly, my mistake, 1000 ways to die

[Ricky32908]

@Diamonddavej yea , i watch discovery channel too

[xXJeeXTeeXAyeXmanXx]

@Diamonddavej the biggest company was called Radium Girls and they were told it was completley safe - they even painted their nails with radium paint!

[Grapefruit2000]

@bf2lover42 radioactive chocolate ? holy fuck..

[ggabe005]

Test mayonnaise and pepto bismol with your giger counter!!!!

[Imperiusbadischl]

Hi, you can make it with a counter like i !

[Celeon999A]

@atthespeckofdawn

It makes the hands and numbers glow in the dark so one can read the dial at nightime. Back in the days, people had no fear of radiation as almost nothing was known about its health effects.

Many people working with radium in old clock factories paid for that with their health.

The radioactivity from that watch is rather low, but yet higher than anything that is allowed by modern standards. So i would say its better to refrain from wearing it on your wrist for years. ;-)