lets make the BB glow with Tritium!

[crashtestjeep]

wow! VERY cool stuff!...and I highly respect you to be handling such large quantities of it! I cant wait to see ur BB in its new case! Be sure to show it off so we can see it!

 

[mwa102464]

Crash, can you fill me in on this, why would you want this in or near your mouth if this is that dangerous

 

[Scubabatdan]

This is the same stuff they used in US military watches dating back to the 60's. Of couse these were painted with tritium on the dial and hands because it glowed in the dark with out any power source, of couse the guys that wore these wondered why their hair fell out around the watch.
MIL-W-46374 WATCHES

The newers ones contain "rods" are suppose to be safer...

Just my 2 cents
Dan

 

[Yankee802]

Yeah, I want to know this too, isn't this stuff dangerous? I mean it IS radioactive isn't it?

I'm racking my brain trying to remember the glow-in-the-dark stuff that (decades ago) woman used to put on as 'cool' makeup, then shortly after got cancer from. Tritium makes me think of this.

 

[the86d]

Kryptonite, people its freaking Kryptonite.


Um I won't touch the stuff, or my ninja computer skills go away.

Looks nice, just keep it in a lead box.

 

[chev327fox]

This is the same stuff they used in US military watches dating back to the 60's. Of couse these were painted with tritium on the dial and hands because it glowed in the dark with out any power source, of couse the guys that wore these wondered why their hair fell out around the watch.
MIL-W-46374 WATCHES

The newers ones contain "rods" are suppose to be safer...

Just my 2 cents
Dan

No, there is a big "history" story about the first women to get workers protection in the work place. It started with this stuff because they would like the brushes after applying the Tritium (licking the tip of the brush is common practice in painting small lines) look it up on Google or something. I can't remember what they were called but their stories were on the TV show "A 1,000 Ways to Die". Their hair all fell out and most or a few of the died. I don't think anything severe happened to the people wearing them.

 

[Doomfinger]

i just watched that show. the stuff was called radium. they used it in watches and in the dials of submarine instruments. there was a big thing about the women licking their brushes to keep a sharp point for precision painting. the raduim got deposited in their bones because the body treated it like calcium and had some nasty effects. i actually saw a clock on antiques roadshow a while back that had a can of the original radium touch up paint still hidden inside the clock! i dont think id want this tritium in my mouth but it sure looks cool. i wouldnt mind having some just to say i did lol.

 

[Drozd]

this stuff isn't all that dangerous...yeah it's radioactive...but so is alot of our everyday stuff...just that this is made in a nuclear reactor so it gets a bad rap...
it's a radioactive gas (actually the H3 isotope) contained in a rod that's coated with phosphor ..and the gas makes the phosphor glow...and that rod is often contained in something else...the only radiation poisoning you're likely to get from it is if you cracked the glass vial open under your nose while inhaling..
here it is in the US: Tritium Light Source - $29.00 : United Nuclear , Scientific Equipment & Supplies

 

[Doomfinger]

ya i googled tritium and the wiki said that as long as it was in its glass case and not inhaled/ingested that it was relatively safe. just don wanna get it into your body.

 

[chev327fox]

i just watched that show. the stuff was called radium. they used it in watches and in the dials of submarine instruments. there was a big thing about the women licking their brushes to keep a sharp point for precision painting. the raduim got deposited in their bones because the body treated it like calcium and had some nasty effects. i actually saw a clock on antiques roadshow a while back that had a can of the original radium touch up paint still hidden inside the clock! i dont think id want this tritium in my mouth but it sure looks cool. i wouldnt mind having some just to say i did lol.

Ohhh... good call, your right. I thought that it was this because Dan mentioned watches and I think he was thinking or Radium as well. Thanks for the correction..

 

[Scubabatdan]

Ohhh... good call, your right. I thought that it was this because Dan mentioned watches and I think he was thinking or Radium as well. Thanks for the correction..

Nope I was talking about tritium, I know about this because of my dad, he had one that I found in his war box when I was a kid and he told me to leave it alone. He told me how the guys that got issued these in Vietnam lost hair from their arm where they wore the watch. That it had a radioactive isatope in the paint and to leave it alone. Could be he just didnt want me messing with his stuff. Dunno, just relating what he told me. I did find it on the olive-drab site and it was tritium:

The big change with MIL-W-46374B, published 7 May 1975, was the requirement for "H3" and radiation symbol to appear on the watch dial because of the luminous paint that was used. H3 means tritium, the radioactive isotope of hydrogen that provides the "glow in the dark" feature. Other markings on the case and in the packaging were required to indicate the slight hazard from the radioactive material, a recognition of greater safety concern than in previous times.

I have also read that is a common isotope found in nature and is not hrmful unless ingested. But it is interesting the military is still uing it. So it can not be that harmful. I think I will play it safe
Dan