Geiger Counter Fun

[Answerprancer]

Has anyone here had any fun with one of these?
I bought one recently and did some exploring with it...

Background radiation where I live: average 0.1 microsieverts/hour

'vaseline glass' sugar bowl I have: 0.8 (the glass contains uranium oxide)

Background radiation on a recent flight at about 30,000ft: 4.0!

Takumar 50mm vintage camera lens: 24.0!! (the glass contains thorium)

Porst 55mm lens: 20.0 (thorium again)

Vintage mantle-clock with luminous hands/dial owned by me Mum: 7.0

Also I got a higher than normal background radiation result walking under an old red brick railway bridge recently - which was odd.

[wolf63]

I bet that this will be about the only time where those three words appear in the same sentence.

:-)

[Answerprancer]

Quite possibly :-)

[Buenchico]

It would interesting to know what reading you get from a domestic smoke detector.

[Answerprancer]

Ah yes - americium - it's on my 'to do' list :-)

[EDDIE51]

Try Brazil nuts!

[Answerprancer]

Yes, I've heard about that Eddie - and bananas, though I think it might be alpha radiation and my machine only detects beta and gamma.

[Answerprancer]

...and fish caught near Fukushima :-/

[Buenchico]

Possibly relevant ;-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt-SMAVN898

[Answerprancer]

Thanks for that Chris - this is a YT clip I missed and I've watched quite a lot of stuff :-)
He's using something called a 'pancake probe' on that Geiger counter - which will measure all types of ionising radiation including and especially alpha particles, the latter of which he's talking about not being able to make it through paper.
I have a little 'glow stick' that contains tritium gas - which is radioactive but doesn't register at all on my GC because the radiation is alpha.
Will post as soon as I get hold of a smoke detector that I can dismember!

[EDDIE51]

I used to have a Geiger counter (till I sold it on eBay) I had some natural granite samples from Scotland. The Granite was so radio active that if it had been in a laboratory it would have been classified as a radio active source and be a 'controlled substance'
A lot of vintage USSR camera lenses are radio active due to Elements in the glass. The 'Industar 61' is often called the 'radioactive lens'

[Mamyalynne]

//I have a little 'glow stick' //


Mamya stores that away in her memory banks.


Sorry AP x

[-Talbot-]

AP ... try it on your blue smarties

[Answerprancer]

I'll show it to you one day Mamya ;-)
It has a half-life of 12 years.

[Answerprancer]

Blue smarties? What did I say about them other than the fact that eating them makes you grow womens' thingies!

[Answerprancer]

Eddie, yes I've heard about radioactive granite, a lot of the granite found in Cornwall is radioactive - I've heard that polished granite worktops are often 'hot' too.

[Answerprancer]

Specimen of torbernite from my rock collection: 18.2 μSv/h

[ToraToraTora]

I had no idea there where so many geigers about!

[Answerprancer]

Yep and they're everywhere - scrounging all our ions, smelling of foreign atoms tchoh! what's the world coming to ;-)

[Answerprancer]

Eddie, I have an Industar 61LD. One or two of the lens elements are supposed to contain lanthanum which is radioactive but it must be very weak because it only shows slightly over background when I run the GC over it.
I got 0.18 off it just now.

[EDDIE51]

I've had several Industar lenses but never been able to check one with a Geiger counter ( sold the Geiger counter before I got 'into' vintage lenses)
I just know that reviews of the lens often mention the radioactivity.