Beware of old luminescent watches

Since 1968, it is illegal to sell Radium-containing watches in North-America. However, if you have old luminescent watch (as the one that I've inherited from my father), it probably contains Radium, a cancerous substance whose half-life is 1600 years. In this video, the watch on the left was restaured and cleaned while the watch on the right was not.

Jean-Pierre Martel

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Radium
• watch
• luminescence
• cancer
• Jean-Pierre Martel

[DanielTseng100]

the watch on the box is not luminiscent. If is, send me a video same like this but with uv light in the background

[JeanPierreMartel]

@DanielTseng100

You are right : the watch in the box was cleaned from any traces of Radium. That's why the Geiger counter is _not_ affected when passed over it,

On the contrary, the watch on the wooden floor is radioactive and luminescent.

[xboxaddict1125]

They actually used amounts of uranium in those watches! Sounds crazy right?

[JeanPierreMartel]

@xboxaddict1125

No : Radium was used. Radium is la lot more dangerous than Uranium.

[WeatherMondacicci]

Interesting, except I don't know how to read geiger counters and I don't know what levels of radiation are normal and what's high. Interested in this stuff but don't know much about the science or math of it all.

[JeanPierreMartel]

@WeatherMondacicci

Normally, the nameplate on the side of case contains a small sample of Radium which is used for calibration. My Geiger couter was sold to me without it and I'm glad that I don't have it since it's not needed when one just wants to know if a watch is radioactive or not, A Range switch allows you to hear every ray, every ten rays or every one hundred rays hitting the probe per minute.

[JoelThedude4u]

you will need a heck of a lot of watches to create any useful fission or energy, at the most efficient rate, and if you do, you will likekly kill yourself shortly and we'll see you in CNN

[roccotool]

So after millions of watches were sold through the decades, most with radium, we're all getting radiation sickness? Nope. Nice scare tactic.

[QuickRefs]

They used Radium. What's interesting is that the arrows were painted with radioactive ink only by young women because of their finger precision. Some women used that ink as a fun makeup that glows in dark. As a result, all of them eventually ended up dead with a brain stroke.

[vmelkon]

@soylentgreenb Ok, thanks. I didn't know that.

[soylentgreenb]

@vmelkon Sufficiently energetic gamma rays(tens of MeV) can induce fission in heavy elements(not just fissile U-235, U-233 and Pu-239, but lead, bismuth, gold...); this is not just some curiosity in a lab, it actually happens in some stars.

The way gamma rays get converted to heat is through a combination of pair production(if they have high energy), compton scattering(creates recoil electrons, similar to low energy betas) and photoelectric effect.

[Gibbagobba]

reminds me of the Big Bang Theory;

"dont you worry about the radiation from the luminous dials?"

"well NOT UNTIL NOW!!"

[Dr3aDnAuGhTz]

god your hand looks fucking gross thats why you dont go near radiation