View Single Post
  #132   Report Post  
Posted to uk.d-i-y
Martin Brown Martin Brown is offline
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 2,701
Default Atomic energy toy

On 23/02/2015 21:04, Tough Guy no. 1265 wrote:
On Mon, 23 Feb 2015 10:46:47 -0000, Martin Brown
wrote:

On 22/02/2015 15:14, charles wrote:
In article , Tough Guy no. 1265
wrote:
On Sun, 22 Feb 2015 12:39:49 -0000, Jim Newman wrote:

On 20/02/2015 17:04, Tough Guy no. 1265 wrote:
On Fri, 20 Feb 2015 16:26:40 -0000, Brian Gaff
wrote:

What about the trimfones btalite gas filled tube behind the dial? I
can recall being rather appalled back in the 60s when we found my
grandfathers old alarm clock in a drawer, still glowing from dots of
something or other after 10 years. I doubt it would be adangerous
unless you strapped it to yourself for a while though.

We binned it. Brian


Unnecessarily over cautious.

So long as you don't break the glass envelope the tritium can't do you
any harm. Tritiated plastics are also used in emergency exit signage.
The beta emission at 18.6keV is pretty well matched to TV phosphors and
very few can get through even the thinnest layer of glass or plastic...


The emergency exits I've seen are lit by a battery operated lamp.


You must lead a very sheltered life. They are available in the UK.

http://www.sos-uk.co.uk/tritium-signs.html

--
Regards,
Martin Brown