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Oil temperature gauge luminous dial.
This oil temperature gauge is out of a WWII bomber and it has a luminous dial made with radium paint. The luminosity has faded, which is known to happen due to the deterioration of the zinc sulfide phosphor. It is still definitely radioactive (half-life of 1600 years, so it's going to be that way for a long time). It was donated by Trish Craig of the Environmental Health & Safety department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Here's a great article about an object I'd sure like to find and enclose behind a huge amount of lead/
If you're interested in collecting radioactive things, here is a book I highly recommend.
Source: Trish Craig
Contributor: Trish Craig
Acquired: 28 May, 2002
Price: Donated
Size: 3"
Purity: <1%
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Great Radium Spring Water Co, Inc, Pittsfield, Mass bottle.
Just as we have a lot of quack medicines today, many of which are quite dangerous (e.g. ephedrine in high doses sold as an "herbal" remedy), soon after the discovery of radiation it started being used in health drinks and other remedies.
This might seem nutty now, and in fact many people died from these treatments. But it's no more nutty than, say, homeopathic remedies are today. (And homeopathic remedies are probably going to stay popular for a long time, because they have the great virtue of containing no actual ingredients other than water and sometimes alcohol. This means they are perfectly safe and free from side effects, which are what usually do in quack remedies eventually. You really have to hand it to an industry that makes vast amounts of money selling tiny little bottles of distilled water. But I digress.)
If you think back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the two most magical recent discoveries from the world of science were electricity and magnetism. Both were by then quite well known and useful, and had been around long enough that people knew they were, taken in moderation of course, quite harmless. No one died a slow and horrible death from exposure to magnets, or from years of sitting under electric lights. So when radioactivity was discovered, why should anyone have expected it to be so horribly dangerous, even in quantities that caused no obvious immediate harm, from lumps you could hold in your hand without any apparent danger? All the early researchers had no idea it was dangerous, and exposed themselves to staggeringly large radiation doses. Many, many of them died as a result, but not until years later, and it took some time before the connection was really understood.
In fact, it was soon observed that the water from mineral hot springs, which everyone knew to be healthful, was radioactive. (It contains radon gas, which comes from the decay of uranium and thorium, which decay is responsible for the heat that makes the spring water hot in the first place.)
This pretty much clinched the argument that radioactivity must be not only harmless, but positively beneficial, and a health craze quickly ensued in the form of "Radithor" water irradiators, thorium drinks, radium drinks, and so on. It was, at the time, seemingly harmless and not nearly as crazy as it seems today. (Of course, it was crazy at the time too, as was the use of electricity and magnetism in quack devices. My point is just that the danger genuinely was not known at first: People were not more stupid back then, they just didn't have the information yet.)
It took the horrible and well-publicized death of the well-known industrialist Eben Byers in 1932, from daily doses of radium health elixir, to finally bring some caution to the craze. This article about the subject is fascinating and informative.
The history of this bottle (and a picture of one like it) can be found in this wonderful book about radioactivity. To quote from the picture caption on page 16:From 1919 to 1922 the Great Radium Spring Water Company at 24 North Street in Pittsfield, Massachusetts sold bottle water that ostensibly provided some of the same health benefits as radium springs in nearby places like Saratoga Springs, New York. The source of the water used in this product is uncertain but may in fact have contained dissolved radon. Radon levels, however, decline rapidly once water is removed from the ground and this "deficiency" in bottled and city water, gave rise to radon charging devices popular in the 1920s (See my Revigator and Revigator booklet below for an example of one of those charging devices.)
Source: eBay seller elaine301
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 10 October, 2002
Price: $5
Size: 9"
Purity: 0%
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Fitrite "Radium Outfit".
I'm not sure what they mean by "radium", but from the standpoint of radioactivity, this kit is as dead as a doornail. It obviously never contained any actual radium.
It is clearly old, and it is clearly marked by the original manufacturer as being a "radium" kit. The seller on eBay was selling it as exactly what it is, and I don't suspect any fraud whatsoever. In fact, I know of at least one other kit with a different brand name also sold as a "radium" outfit, which also contains no radium.
So what's going on? Well, no doubt someone knows this in great detail, but I haven't found them yet. If you know, please tell me!
In the mean time, I have several speculations.
1) It's just a rip-off. There were certainly just as many charlatans 80 years ago as there are today. But it seems unlikely because real radium paint would have been glowing, and any buyer would have seen before buying that the paint was not right.
2) It's from a later period of time and is meant as a radium-like replacement paint. "Radium" being more like a brand name that a description of the contents. The paint is phosphorescent when activated by bright light.
3) It's meant to refresh the phosphor of a radium-hand watch. Radium has a very long half-life (1600 years) but the zinc sulfide phosphors used at the time wear out and the dials lose their luminosity after a few years. Perhaps this paint was meant to be applied over an existing radium watch hand, refreshing the luminosity without actually needing to add any new radium.
After I wrote the above, I was of course informed of a fourth possibility I hadn't considered, by the co-author of a wonderful book about radioactivity:There were several luminous paints used by watchmakers that contained short-lived isotopes such as promethium-147 and tritium. I don't recall if I have the particular "Radium Outfit" you show on your web page but I have several like it and most do not contain radium. You shouldn't be misled by the word "radium" on these and similar products. There's a section in the book that will give you some idea of the broad use of this word in early products and advertising. My personal rule is that I don't buy anything that "appears" to be hot just from its description unless the seller can verify it with a Geiger counter or will accept a return. So, there's my answer.
Source: eBay seller watchman37
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 18 October, 2002
Price: $107
Size: 1"
Purity: 0%
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Proper radium watch hands, Bestfit 6R4 kit.
After being burned by the "radium" paint described above, I was a bit nervous about these watch hands, also from eBay. Fortunately, all but 3 of the glass vials full of watch hands turned out to be highly radioactive. None of them glow (the zinc sulfide phosphors break down after only a few years, so old radium hands don't glow even though the radium itself has a half-life of 1600 years).
Interestingly, while they all glow somewhat after exposure to bright light, the non-radioactive ones glow more than the others. Two possibilities come to mind: Perhaps they were never meant to be radioactive, and are a made with a newer, simple glow-in-the-dark paint. Or perhaps they were defectively manufactured, and the phosphor has simply survived better because it isn't being exposed to constant radioactivity. Given that they appear identical to the radioactive ones and are in exactly the same kind of container, I would tend to think the latter. The hands all constitute a single kit of replacement hands, so one would expect them all to be from the same era. On the other hand, perhaps the non-radioactive ones are the most popular sizes, and had to be re-stocked with newer hands at a later date, to keep the kit complete.
This excellent book has a photograph (on page 83) of a very similar full set (Bestfit 6R5), in its original box. I have the label that came with the set, but not the box.
Source: eBay seller dashto@erols.com
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 4 November, 2002
Price: $37
Size: 0.5"
Purity: <1%
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A Most Amazing Booklet about Revigators.
This book is just incredible. I can't even begin to describe how hilarious it is in places, knowing what we know now about radioactivity. The beautiful thing is, it could have been written today, if you just substitute your favorite current alternative health fad for the substance they are extolling (known in the book as "niton" or "emanation"). All the same arguments, proofs, and fundamental confusions about how the world works are there, right down to the claim that it can't possibly be harmful because it's not a drug or medicine, it's all natural. The "it" being radon gas, which is now known to be one of the most powerfully toxic substances in the world, so toxic that even barely measurable concentrations from natural sources are a problem in many people's houses.
This 20-page booklet is an ad for a product called the "Revigator", which charged your drinking water with radon gas, in case you were missing the benefits of this all-natural substance in your daily life. And it really did emit radon: The product was, unfortunately for its users, not a fraud. It was lined with carnotite (Hydrated Potassium Uranyl Vanadate), a uranium ore which, like any uranium or thorium ore, emits radon gas at a steady rate as a decay product of the uranium.
I've listed the item under radium as well as uranium, because although it's lined with uranium ore, the Revigator is glazed with the words "Radium Ore Revigator". This is largely due to the fact that at the time "Radium" was the popular name that represented any kind of (good) radioactivity. And radium is, in fact, found as a small component in uranium ores, so it's no doubt present in some quantity in this Revigator too.
I have scanned the book and prepared a PDF file for your reading pleasure. There are two versions, a plain one for reading on screen and a double-sided one where the pages seem to be out of order until you print it out double-sided and saddle-staple the result. The second file is ideal if you want to create your own copies of the booklet to hand out to your new-age friends. (This book is technically copyrighted, but so far as I am aware the company that owns the copyright is long defunct, so I really doubt anyone cares.)
If you're interested in radioactive things, here is a book I strongly recommend.
In December of 2002, this booklet was de-accessioned from the table: This is the first time I have ever parted with a sample, and may be the last, as it was something I did only after weeks of agonizing deliberation. The reason for parting with it was that I was offered, by a highly reputable collector who wishes to remain anonymous, nearly a pound of solid machined uranium metal (see uranium) in exchange for it. Depleted uranium is something that simply isn't available at any price, and after seeking advice and council from learned individuals, I decided that all I really care about is the PDF version of this booklet anyway.
Source: eBay seller daddio
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 8 November, 2002
Price: $44
Size: 9"
Purity: 0%
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An actual Revigator.
Revigators sell on a regular basis on eBay. (See above for a description of what a Revigator is.) I've seen them go for almost $500 for one in perfect condition. That's outside my price range, especially for samples that don't even have the element in pure form. But fortunately I found this ragged old one, missing its lid and spigot, for a much more reasonable price.
And it's just as radioactive as the others! Holding the probe outside it registers only about 2-3000 counts per minute, but if you stick the probe down into it, you get almost 100,000 CPM. Of course neither of these measurements is a meaningful reflection of the total body dose you would get from standing near it, let alone drinking water out of it. That's an experiment I may yet do. (I.e. let water stand in it for a couple of days, then pour it out and measure the radioactivity, if any, of the water as a function of time. I am not going to drink that water!)
I've listed the item under radium as well as uranium, because although it's lined with uranium ore, the Revigator is glazed with the words "Radium Ore Revigator". This is largely due to the fact that at the time "Radium" was the popular name that represented any kind of (good) radioactivity. And radium is, in fact, found as a small component in uranium ores, so it's no doubt present in some quantity in this Revigator too.
Here are some fascinating close-ups of the lettering glazed on the outside of this old pot:
Source: eBay seller bettyboop@iolaks.com
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 13 November, 2002
Price: $90
Size: 12"
Purity: <0.1%
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Spinthariscope.
The spinthariscope was a popular amusement at academic parties in the early 1900s, or so I am told. It consists of a short tube with a lens at one end and a zinc-sulfide coated screen at the other, with just a touch of radium mounted near the screen. You look through the lens and see tiny flashes of light on the screen, each one caused by the impact of a single alpha particle created by the decay of a single atom of radium.
This is a rather cheaply made one from a Chemcraft chemistry set made in the 1950's. Unfortunately while the radium will remain radioactive for millennia, the zinc-sulfide phosphor does not last very long, and most spinthariscopes, including this one, do not work very well anymore. By turning off all the lights, covering myself in a thick blanket, and letting my eyes adjust to the dark for a good 5-10 minutes, I was able to convince myself that I saw real flashes of light, one every couple of seconds and sometimes a burst of half a dozen all at once. Whether this was due to radium decay or oxygen deprivation I'm not entirely sure.
Here is an article about spinthariscopes.
I got the 1950's chemistry set on eBay after consulting this trusty reference book about radioactive collectables. According to its table of going rates for these things, I got a good deal on the chemistry set, though it is not in perfect condition and is missing some components. Modern chemistry sets are pretty wimpy, but I have to say that, aside from the uranium ore and the radium, this set is pretty tame as well. It even proudly claims to contain "no dangerous or explosive chemicals". I mean really, where's the fun in that? Here's a picture of the set:
Source: eBay seller 6tomcat
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 10 January, 2003
Price: $58/chemistry set
Size: 1"
Purity: <0.1%
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Sample from the Everest Element Set.
Up until the early 1990's a company in Russia sold a periodic table collection with element samples. At some point their American distributor sold off the remaining stock to a man who is now selling them on eBay. The samples (excepted gasses) weight about 0.25 grams each, and the whole set comes in a very nice wooden box with a printed periodic table in the lid.
Radioactive elements like this one are represented in this particular set by a non-radioactive dummy powder, which doesn't look anything like the real element. (In this case a sample of the pure element isn't really practical anyway.)
To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description and information about how to buy one, or you can see photographs of all the samples from the set displayed on my website in a periodic table layout or with bigger pictures in numerical order.
Source: Rob Accurso
Contributor: Rob Accurso
Acquired: 7 February, 2003
Price: Donated
Size: 0.2"
Purity: 0%
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