Trash, bluedog and I have been visiting lots of locations finding radioactive collectables. We have alot of fun finding the items, bartering and then collecting them.
Where do we hunt?
auctions
antique, collectable and old wares shops
swap meets
garage sales
mineral shops
visiting friends' homes that collect anything
What do we find?
Uranium glass -can be green, citrine, opaque, occasionally pink or blue, really any colour that glass can be.
Plates, cups, lamps, vases, bowls, you name it, if it is made from glass pre 1940, it could be active
Ceramics with uranium salts in the glazes. Often it is red, but any coloured glaze may be radioactive. Old Gouda ceramic pieces, Fiestaware and Franciscanware give high readings.
Radium paint- watches, clocks, radios, military equipment [compasses, radios, sighting instruments, aircraft panel instruments, Willies Jeep speedo]
Thorium - lenses, usually in cameras pre 1960 but obviously anything with a quality lens may be active. Thorium was added to change the refractive index, improving the optics and making the lens lighter.
Any mineral containing a radioactive element. For instance, potassium is mildy radioactive. We have a kilo bag of potassium chloride from the local horse barn produce shop that gives a reading on the geiger counter.
What do we use to hunt with?
Geiger counters [bluedog makes mine] UV torches [3w single elemt 18650] and UV lasers [less than 1mw, readily available on fleabay from local sellers.] We never travel without them.
Isn't that dangerous?
Most of the glassware is low level, you are at greater risk breaking it up and eating it. Some early glassware is quite hot.
Some of the ceramics are very hot, they live outside. Same with the mineral samples, they also live outside.
Using sensitive geiger counters, we can check if something should stay outside.
The uranium glass items look stunning under UV, they fluoresce. Bluedog has run some UV led strip lighting on some shelves, with uranium glass items.
Alot of the posts in this forum are about military items. We have a few miltary items that are hot. One is an early backpack radio. At night, you were at risk of being shot if the enemy saw a light shining, so instead, they used luminescent paint on the dials. This particular radio is very hot and lives out in the shed. A few other radios in our collection also have knobs painted in radium based paint.
At a recent auction, I saw a signalers lamp. It was in poor condition having been modified to be used as a spotlight. It did have the remains of an eyepiece which was cloudy that was hot. This is actually a nasty piece as holding it close to the sensitive cornea tissue could damage your eye.
I have seen military compasses that have luminescent radioactive paint.
Was chatting to a fellow about a collector of WW clandestine military gear. He had a collection of really interesting pieces including magnetic buttons that were designed to be suspended on string and show north. They were painted with radium paint. He was held up for a long time at a US airport as he set the security counters off. Finally someone who understood what they exactly were let him through.
The instruments from some planes are hot. I saw a collection from a spitfire that were really active. We have a number of instruments in our collection. They no longer glow by themselves at night, but are still very radioactive and fluoresce under UV.
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Trash has the biggest/hottest collection of radioactive rocks in Australia outside of the Universities. And I'm not ever sure what their geology departments have for comparison.
"Isn't that dangerous?"
Hell yes! The level of radiation is safe(ish), but still hell scary to anybody who owns a geiger counter and knows what normal background levels are.
What is a problem is Radon gas. For people who have one or two specimens it is never going to be a problem. But I have hundreds and real nasty shit.
Radon gas is a serious hazard and I go to extraordinary lengths to control it.
Bluedog and Brewdog and I were out a couple of weeks ago scouring a paddock for treasure. If brew had a chicken suit on you could have been fooled the way she was scratching through the dirt.
Bluedog and I decided to walk an old railway line last week and crack some rocks on a radioactive hill.
But the best site I've found so far has been the old Adelaide River mine.
Yes I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.
Ahhhh.. but do you have a black stone with a red flaw in it?
You guys had better be careful, you'll have Emmett Brown approching you for something to power his DeLorean. If you are lucky, or ASIO.
If you look at a radiological map of Australia Isemmens, there is one spot on it that is clearly hotter than everywhere else in NSW.
Says something about my collection
Yes I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.
lsemmens (27-11-14)
I know that many people here like their militaria so shall tell you about a recent piece I collected at the Orange swap meet. It is a RAF signaller's lamp from the second world war.
Swap meets are alot of fun. You never know what turns up. Grimy unrecognisable car parts, rusted tractors, bits of chrome trim and collectables of all sorts. If it fits in a car or on a trailer, it may be there. Go looking for a rim to fit a 1996 Landcruiser and you won't find one, but will stumble across an axe just like Grandad used.
I found standard items that I know are radioactive, green uranium glass items, ceramics with hot glaze and clocks with radium painted faces. On one table there was a RAF signaller's lamp and it was radioactive.
The lamp came in it's original box in very good condition. Model 5A/2334. Manufactured pre 1943. It was used to communicate between bombers in formation so that radio silence was kept. For accurate pointing, there are two sighting guides, one of which has a thick layer of radium based paint that would have glowed at night.
The second image shows the front sighting guide. The off white surface on the inside of this guide is the radioactive part.
Last year, I saw another similar lamp in poor condition after it had been modified as a hunting spotlight. The front guide was removed. The rear guide was radioactive, which was very nasty as it emitted alpha particles (damaging radiation) close to the cornea (soft sensitive part of the body.) The rear sight was probably radioactive (glow in the dark paint) so that it could line up with another glow in the dark dot on the front sight, similar to rifle sights, allowing it to be sighted in darkness at a receiving station.
Soon there will be forum member name changes....
Al Trash Al Shabub
Mohammad Brewdog Hassien
Sheik Mohammad Bluedog Asif
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Statistically, if you wait long enough, everything will happen!
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