Just found P8 compass in garage:is it safe?!

[Jennie Louise]

Hi

I'm new to this site! I've just found a P8 compass in my dad's old garage. I had no idea what was in the box...so just opened it! What a surprise! Wooden box is looking tired. Couldn't see any cracks on compass but it is rather dusty.

Question: is it safe? I've seen a couple of forums discussing radium and wasn't sure if this referred to inside or on outside of compass.

(Ps Also found a lamp signalling box!)

 

[Airframes]

If the glass and body of the compass are intact, then it should be safe - the 'risk' is mainly from the possibility of inhaling radium dust from the compass rose markings.

 

[pbehn]

I think the main danger of the luminescent paints used was through people painting them on their skin before the dangers were known and the people working in the factories. Radium Girls - Wikipedia

 

[mikewint]

Yup, also don't take the cover off and chew on the dial markings. With a half-life of 1600 years it's still active

 

[Jennie Louise]

Thanks everyone. I've read such a mixture of opinions and cases of the compass emitting high levels of radiation. I'm going to get a radiation detector and see what it says... I'll report back if it's of any concern...

 

[pbehn]

Thanks everyone. I've read such a mixture of opinions and cases of the compass emitting high levels of radiation. I'm going to get a radiation detector and see what it says... I'll report back if it's of any concern...

Why not get in touch with a company that does radiography, non destructive testing, they will have radiation monitors. In UK and Europe they are compulsory, I cant see it being any different where you are.

 

[Jennie Louise]

Why not get in touch with a company that does radiography, non destructive testing, they will have radiation monitors. In UK and Europe they are compulsory, I cant see it being any different where you are.

Thanks for that. I've never heard of that, but will google and see how it works in U.K.

 

[pbehn]

Thanks for that. I've never heard of that, but will google and see how it works in U.K.

I was, for my sins a trained industrial radiographer, when using isotopes there is a danger they can be lost so you have to have a means to find them. But mainly when in use you need to establish the safe limit, where the radiation is below the legal maximum. Radiation Detector: Test & Measurement Equipment | eBay

 

[mikewint]

Radium 225 emits ALPHA particles, i.e. a Helium nuclei, two protons-two neutrons. These heavy particles have little ability to penetrate solid matter and as such the glass of the dial would stop 99% of them and the remainder would not travel far in the air.
Radium 225 emitting an alpha particle now becomes Radon 222 (4 days) a gas, the minuscule amount produced should easily be contained by the dial enclosure. Radon 222 emits another alpha particle to become Polonium 218. With a half-life of 3 minutes it (Polonium) almost immediately emits another alpha, a beta particle (high energy electron) and a gamma ray. Beta and gamma are penetrating radiations, gamma much more so. So your detector needs must react to all three types and anything you detect outside the dial will invariably be either beta or gamma from the Polonium decay.

 

[special ed]

I have a ww2 compass in a pocket watch case by Wittnauer, and I'm OK... I'm OK .. I'm OK

 

[newst]

Along with the danger to the individuals who painted those dials there was another group of workers, less well known, who were endangered by them. These were warehouse workers. In my early days working logistics for the U.S. Army I worked peripherally on a project to gather up the hundreds of thousands of these dials that had been stored in warehouses and have them safely disposed of. Apparently, some of those warehouses contained so many of the dials, for so long, that they were no longer safe for people to enter without protective gear.

 

[mikewint]

View: https://youtu.be/Snjd_EI82GQ