[time-nuts] How dangerous if a Rb lamp broken?

[J. Forster]

The stuff that turns color is the dial paint. The numbers are painted on
top. When the hands move, they expose the underlying paint to view.

-John

=============

> I wonder what that is? How come the digits don't show the same burn that
> the
> hands do? They certainly remained in the same position for longer than the
> hands.
>
> Hmmm?
>
> Tom
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Chuck Harris" <cfharris at erols.com>
> To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement"
> <time-nuts at febo.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, July 10, 2013 3:41 PM
> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] How dangerous if a Rb lamp broken?
>
>
>> The dials of most of the old "radium" dial watches have burns in them
>> caused by the hands being parked for long periods of time as the watch
>> invariably failed and stopped.  The crystals are similarly "etched"
>> from their exposure.  The gamma photons did the deed...
>>
>> I have one such watch that was given to me by an uncle who was a
>> physicist
>> and was part of the Marshal Island H-Bomb tests.  He was given the watch
>> by
>> the US Army, and wore it daily until it set off the alarms on one of the
>> experiments he was working on.... After that, it sat on a shelf for 20
>> years
>> before being given to me.  No burns when it was put away, and a very
>> distinct burn after sitting 20 years.
>>
>> So, yes, it would burn you, but at the rate that gamma comes off of a
>> watch dial, it would take a long time, and your body would have
>> naturally
>> replaced the cells many times over the duration of the burn.
>>
>> -Chuck Harris
>>
>>
>>
>> Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
>>> In message <5DEED07BE9DE486C9E668636A2949A62 at BACKROOM>, "Max Robinson"
>>> writes:
>>>
>>>> I once read that if you were to wear a radium dial watch face down you
>>>> would
>>>> get a radiation burn on your arm.  I wonder who would do such a thing.
>>>> I
>>>> also wonder if the writer knew what he was writing about or if he was
>>>> just
>>>> speculating.
>>>
>>> You would.
>>>
>>> He did.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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