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Thread: I bought a Geiger counter.

  1. #21
    Senior Member NAPOTS's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by alismith View Post
    If they are older compasses or watches, they should be radium, I would think.

    Isn't tritium of more modern usage? Radium goes back a long time....

    Growing up in the 50's, I remember all our bedroom clocks had radium to make them light up after a light hit them. They had to be activated by light before they would glow and the glow didn't last very long. Tritium is its own light source, right?
    I don't believe radium has to be activated.

    I am not sure when Radium was phased out. I am sure for military stuff (like compasses) it lasted way longer than the commercial market. I have a surplus lensatic compass around somewhere.

    Now for those who are more knowledgeable, if the emissions are mostly alpha it is only harmful if you eat it right?

  2. #22
    Guns Network Contributor 01/2015 Altarboy's Avatar

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    The emissions are mostly beta and gamma, because my counter does not receive Alpha.

  3. #23
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    The deal with radium and tritium is the need for something like phosphorus for the rads to spark light off of, otherwise they don't emit light we can see. And yes alphas you don't want to eat, but they are the least penetrative of the commonly known rads. Far worse to ingest beta and gamma emitters.
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  4. #24
    Senior Member JTHunter's Avatar

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    Quote Originally Posted by Altarboy View Post
    The emissions are mostly beta and gamma, because my counter does not receive Alpha.
    IIRC, the professor in my physiology class in college said that 5-6 sheets of notebook paper were sufficient to stop "alpha" particles as they are the nucleus of the atom, made up of protons and neutrons, and the largest particles. "Betas" are the electrons stripped from an atom. Not only are they smaller, they are faster and more "energetic", like a high speed bullet, are the products used in radiation therapy (cancer), and are what causes the blue "Cherenkov radiation" in a heavy water nuclear reactor.
    “I have little patience with people who take the Bill of Rights for granted. The Bill of Rights, contained in the first ten amendments to the Constitution, is every American’s guarantee of freedom.” - - President Harry S. Truman, “Years of Trial and Hope”

  5. #25
    Guns Network Contributor 01/2015 Altarboy's Avatar

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    What I'm saying is that my counter is showing 4200 cpm for the military compass and 8900 for the desk one. It does not measure alpha. The radium is giving off beta and gamma. They are now out in the shop in a concrete pig my son made.

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