On Sat, Nov 23, 2002 at 11:59:22AM -0500, Mark Ross wrote:
>
> > One has to wonder about this product. What is the energy source?
> > Something that glows for 10 years can't be charged once and produce that
> > much light for that long. I have to believe this uses a radioactive
> > source and that's why it can't be exported.
> ................
> >It uses Tritium, a radioisotope of Hydrogen (no, I'd never heard of it
> >either, and I had the periodic table stuck in my head for 3 years at
> >college). It releases a very small amount of =DF-rays (you don't wanna eat it
> >but unlike gamma radiation it won't kill you just by being exposed to it)
> >and thus as a radioactive material is very tightly controlled in terms of
> >shipping and the like. My guess is the costs to get export licences to ship
> >this kind of thing overseas is too much for them to want to bother.
> >
> >Ben.
> ................
> >Tritium is use mostly for watch markers, which you can see at night.
> >This is a replaced idea that during the early part of the last century
> >after the original way was found to kill those who applied it. If you
> >have an old watch with the old type glow, you can't get it repainted,
> >they don't like to have that dust in the air. Okay sorry this isn't
> >newton but hey since I was a watch repair person I figured I would share.
>
> Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen, atomic number 3, with 2 neutrons and
> one proton, and is used in the hydrogen bomb as well as for radioisotopic
> labeling. Its a gas, so I'm unclear how this can be used as a watch
> paint.
Quite simple: since tritium is just "very heavy" hydrogen, you mix up
some chemical which:
- contains hydrogen in its molecules,
- can be used as paint or as permanent part (remains on painted item)
of a paint mixture,
and then mix it up with some/all of the normal hydrogen replaced with
tritium. Add some radioluminescent chemicals to it and you have a nice
batch of "glow in the dark all by itself" paint to, for instance, paint
dials of watches with. Or gunsights. Or whatever else you think would be
helped by glowing in the dark.
Regards,
Alex.
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