The Radium Girls
Aug 14, 2012 14:54:52 #
Aug 14, 2012 15:00:21 #
Aug 14, 2012 17:42:23 #
Back in the early 20th century kids used to play with spinthrascopes which contained a small bit of radium. You could hold to your eye and watch alpha particles from the radioactive decay of radium strike a scintillation screen and cause little sparkles of light. By the time I had one in the 50s the radium had been replaced with thorium because of the Radium Girls history.
Toys for geeks.
Toys for geeks.
Aug 14, 2012 23:01:55 #
Living on the edge...seems like no one does anymore. Not too long before I moved out here from WI people used to flock out to the NW edge of town to view the nuclear bomb tests being conducted at a federal facility. They even had bleachers set up as close as they were allowed to be.
Aug 14, 2012 23:10:28 #
Man... I'd love to watch a nuke go off! Something in the multi-megatonnage range would be great.
"I really think there's great human drama in destruction and nature unleashed and I don't get enough of it."
- George Carlin
It's like all these predictions of the end of the world. Guys like Harold Camping get me all fired up with a prediction. I get out a lawn chair and a bottle of Single Malt and wait for the show.
And what's the reward? Another disappointment.
I go with Carlin, just don't get enough of it. Heck, we have no hope of a tsunami in Atlanta and nary a volcano in sight.
"I really think there's great human drama in destruction and nature unleashed and I don't get enough of it."
- George Carlin
It's like all these predictions of the end of the world. Guys like Harold Camping get me all fired up with a prediction. I get out a lawn chair and a bottle of Single Malt and wait for the show.
And what's the reward? Another disappointment.
I go with Carlin, just don't get enough of it. Heck, we have no hope of a tsunami in Atlanta and nary a volcano in sight.
Aug 15, 2012 12:35:10 #
Danilo wrote:
The numerals on luminous watch dials??? Who woiulda thunk?
I remember those as a kid. I also have a vague recollection of the Xray machines used to look inside the new shoes you were trying on at the shoe store. http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/shoefittingfluor/shoe.htm
And then there was the "quicksilver" or mercury we used to coat pennies with so they looked like dimes. I'm surprised that I'm still alive. (Although some mornings it feels like I've been radioactive for too long...)
Aug 15, 2012 13:07:34 #
Wabbit
Loc: Arizona Desert
derekmadge wrote:
quote=Danilo The numerals on luminous watch dials... (show quote)
Hey Doc ..... my dad used mercury batteries in his hearing aid ..... we squeezed the old batteries to get the mercury to play with ..... ya know I don't go out at night because I still glow .....
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