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Radium in WW2 clocks / instruments


RAF635SQ

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Was looking over YouTube today and come across this video on a 2nd World War altimeter. It is a MASSIVE eye-opener to just how dangerous these things can be if you do not know what you are dealing with. It is common knowledge that we painted radium in them so they would glow but it is never really clear just how deadly they probably can still be even in 2013. The radiation is so high the women's detector actually can not get an accurate reading as it is higher than it can go.

 

 

Does anyone know if the Germans used radium? I have various German aircraft gauges so this has me worried slightly as only a small sheet of glass and some wood separates them from me right now.

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Hi RAF, not too sure about German guages btu the British used it a lot. It has a lot of press here is Scotland due to Dalgety Bay where after the war the MOD set fire to surplus aircraft and melted them on the beach. The area is contaminated with the stuff and of course people want to make it out as bad a Chernobyl.

 

Looking online lots of watches during the period had the stuff and it is nasty but exposer to raise cancer risk would need to be constant 24/7 exposure for quite some time or you need to lick the dials quite a lot. The basic rule is if the stuff is still sealed behind the glass dial it is safer than if it could get out.

 

See:

http://www.mwrforum.net/forums/showthread.php?t=31948

http://forums.watchuseek.com/f385/identifying-radium-dial-518934.html

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I would collect something else RAF , they are a bit like gas masks, you are never quite sure what's in them , there are plenty of other things to collect out there , much safer with a badge or medal :thumbsup:

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You mean there is not an ultra rare glow in the dark iron cross made for Luftwaffe night fighter pilots?... damn the one I have said it was 100% authentic... got it from a guy on ebay

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Thanks guys. I might try and get it viewed by a collector who knows their way around this sort of stuff, the glass is sealed but it is hard to tell if it is radium or not. I am looking into buying a cheap radiation detector just to see if it gives any reading on the gauge. I have had this 109 gauge for years and I have slept next to it for that long also! :blink:

 

I know a bloke who goes to Chernobyl nearly every year, his friend dug up a minuscule speck of fuel rod from reactor 4 when doing some studies, apparently it was so reactive that the professional detectors stopped working or something along those lines... :shok0002:

His friend who dug it up is a nuclear scientist so luckily they knew what they was doing!!

 

 

You mean there is not an ultra rare glow in the dark iron cross made for Luftwaffe night fighter pilots?... damn the one I have said it was 100% authentic... got it from a guy on ebay

:lol: Haha

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  • 3 years later...

My father, who was a chemist and with a good knowledge of chemistry, physics, etc. always maintained that such articles were coated with a paint containing a phosphorous ingredient, which causes the glow in the darkness. I am certain the Germans also used a paint with a phosphorous content, see also the gorgettes used by the Feldgendarmerie, etc. Also marktings on German aircraft instruments etc., would have a similar composition. The Germans had quite different products to the Allies. Radium was probably not available, but a certain amount of radioactive material had been mined in Thüringen, and after the war, the Russians siezed all they could get.

Another example for instance, the Germans had no penicillin, instead there were sulphonamid preparations, which were almost as effective. After the postwar years penacilliin was available in the western zones of Germany, but not in the East. However, in the East, despite all shortages and hardships, new alternatives were found, as an Ersatz for Penicillin and "Jenazillin" was developed, as I was told - this being attributed to the city of "Jena". Artificial fuels and rubber (Buna-Werke) were also developed and produced, as imports were no longer possible. This has diverged a little from the topic.

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I was offered a lovely Feldgendarmerie gorget about six months ago but had to knock it back because of the Radium. It broke my heart but was just not worth the risk. :(

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What???? I wouldn't worry too much about the "Radium", I'd tend to go for the object. It is only phosphorescent paint, just very little of it, and often some of this is worn off anyway.

If you don't handle the object too often and don't go to close to it, there shouldn't be any problem.

I've heard nothing from this side about such themes, or even gasmasks, in a country like this, things would otherwise be banned double quick. They are very good about banning other people's pleasures in this country. It's best maybe to keep this sort of thing "under your hat" and not mention too much about it, people get panicky too easily, and then you get the bans.

Back to the dark ages, when superstition and witchcraft were a daily obsession. People will be asking if a steel helmet is haunted, or if Hitler's ghost appears at midnight between the Voss Straße and the Potsdamer Platz, wailing, "Quintus Varus, bring back my legions..."

and here, a quick view into ancient history - the first Germans, this was the birth of all German nationalism:

image.thumb.png.482f59b9b07cc85cbe482957e0e94b1a.png

Teutoburger Wald (nr. Osnabrück), 9 A.D., 3 Roman Legions, one eighth of the Roman Army under Quintus Varus, are annihilated by the Germanen, led by Hermann the Cherusker (Arminius)

image.png.b034af0df909a3c6f5b5898ff09c450e.png

image.thumb.png.ccaee7fed28242a5f42941aea89f2de2.png

Detmold, Hermannsdenkmal

image.png.47f7e5a79323112bf633f3219574aef7.png

Germania - Central Europa, ca. 50 A.D.
Germanic settlements at the time 50 A.D.
The Goths on both banks of the Weichsel Estuary had not yet begun their move southwards towards the Black Sea.
The Slavs had not yet arrived from the East. There is still no mention of the Saxons or the Francs! Ratia and Noricum are
approximate to present day Bavaria and Austria, Vindobona (Wien) was a Roman settlement.

Germanische Siedlungsräume um das Jahr 50.
Die Goten beiderseits der Weichselmündung hatten noch nicht mit ihrem Zug mach Süden, ans Schwarze Meer begonnen.
Die Slawen waren noch nicht von Osten her eingewandert.

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  • 3 years later...

Some more information added.

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