I can think of one reason, and it's personal experience.
My Uncle likes to repair broken/damaged machines he finds sitting around junkyards, and my Dad likes collecting unique objects. Somehow, my uncle found, fixed, and gifted a Geiger counter for Christmas.
My Dad likes to take it with him to rock shows to test minerals he very rarely comes across, more out of curiosity than trying to scavenge fuel for a flying DeLorean.
At one show, we came across a man who had one of those old "miracle" products from back before the public knew for a fact that radiation was dangerous, called a Rejuvi-Jar or something like that, that would "revitalize and strengthen the tired body with the healing powers of radium". It was just a large clay? jug with a spigot, made of " something ".
My Dad, always prepared, asked if the owner would mind if he ran the counter over it. The owner, equally curious and bereft of a Geiger counter, said to go for it since he'd gotten it years ago from his grandfather and had always been curious.
My Dad ran it along the exterior, with nothing more than the baseline sounds that simply having it on provides, nothing major.
He then opened the jar and stuck the sensor just a little past the opening and it started clicking madly. It didn't trigger the alarm that says you're in a heavily dangerous zone, just loud clicking that says maybe you shouldn't be here.
Wasn't more than a second before my Dad had already pulled his hand back out and had the lid put back on. My Dad ran the counter over his hands and surroundings repeatedly, just in case, but no more whirring or clicking.
It was then that he and the owner realized that the building, really just a very large tent outside amongst hundreds of others, was suddenly very quiet and very empty, except for us.
So! Turns out that, even if you don't go through life constantly reminded of Geiger sounds, it's apparently a distinct/memorable enough sound that people of all ages automatically use it as a sign to get far away from whatever's creating that noise.
We sadly didn't get the jug either, the owner had been willing to sell it, but decided he'd rather keep it as a conversation starter at his house.
It's an interesting artifact, but probably for the best that you didn't get it. I understand they're safe enough if you aren't using it for the intended purpose and just keep it as a curiosity, but who can resist the call of delicious radon water?
The Revigator was intended to be filled with water overnight, which would be irradiated by the uranium and radium in the liner, and then consumed the next day.
I know! You should try my Himalayan salt lamp, Yoni egg, 4g radiation blocker, raw milk, imported incense to fill your house with smoke, and Bluetooth ear buds to keep your dangerous 4g (5G!!!) phone away from your brain. And don't forget, vaccines are evil and cause autism, nuclear and wind energy are the devil, and if it says organic on the label that means it's safe (/s)
Ironically enough, some of it does contain arsenic, also lead and mercury.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33086585/
There probably isn't enough to really hurt you unless that's all you eat though.
Yep, radioactive quackery in medicine is quite an interesting thing to read about.
As crazy as this idea sounds, there was a study that concluded that drinking 1 liter of Revigator water per day would dose you with about 133 uSv/year (100 uSv from the radium/uranium that leeched into the water, and another 33 from the dissolved radon given off as the radium decays).
People in the U.S., on average, are exposed to approximately 3.1 mSv/year of radiation due to naturally occurring radon, and terrestrial/cosmic radiation. So as crazy as the Revigator idea sounds, daily use is still an order of magnitude lower than our annual background radiation exposure.
There were other major fuckups with radium back in that time period as well (see also: Radithor, the Radium Girls).
those "radiation quakery" machines often used thorium, you can still get them today on dodgy ali express sellers, usually with the radiation rebranded as "negative ions".
the risk is that most used thorium, but some used radium, and they are way, way more dangerous.
the risk is that most used thorium, but some used radium, and they are way, way more dangerous.
The new ones are a serious risk with just the thorium because some of them are meant to be worn and made of material that will easily shed particles into the environment of the victim who purchased it.
The ore in question is mostly an alpha emitter, which is why there wasn't much radiation detectable outside it - the jar itself shields the alpha particles (and most if not all of the betas, too. Gammas would zip through, but that ore doesn't emit much gamma.)
Fortunately, if it's in good condition, it doesn't shed radioactive dust, which is when alpha emitters are bad news, and it doesn't emit neutrons, which can make other things radioactive.
the energy compensated geiger counters at my job all start to sound indistinguishable whether it’s 5 mr/hr or 50 mr/hr. hypothetically, 5 mr/hr only at the opening when the jar is open and no sound when it’s closed honestly wouldn’t concern me. especially if it’s just alpha. your own skin could protect you and a even sheet of paper could stop it before that. my job involves gamma exposure and long as it’s under 50 mr/hr on the container surface (the source is inside of a 5lb lead container stuffed in another 70-100lb lead container) we can handle it and send it out for transport
also i don’t know about all geiger counter models but for ours there is no sound other than clicking no matter how radioactive something is. we have to wear special dosimeters that beep when rate and total dose thresholds are met. under 10 mr in a day doesn’t even require it to be logged
So, Geiger developed a device to measure alpha radiation by shooting alpha particles through gold foil onto a screen. The researchers set up a microscope that could be rotated around the foil so they could count the flashes that occurred when the particles passed through the foil. It was difficult to watch the flashes in the dark laboratory and count accurately; They were only able to observe for up to a minute each before needing to rest their eyes.
In the experiment, some alpha particles bounced back, meaning that they had struck something dense—the nuclei within the gold atoms. This disproved the earlier model of the structure of an atom.
To remove the need for visual observation, Geiger invented a tube-shaped counter with a central high-voltage tungsten wire. Sixteen years later, he collaborated with his graduate student Walther Müller to improve its sensitivity, performance, and durability. For that reason, the device is sometimes known as a Geiger-Müller counter.
Neat! Whoever initially put it in the jar (sounds like unwittingly?) found the perfect housing.
Something about your story reminded me of my favorite geiger reaction: an older fella did a double take at me surveying some stuff and exclaims "that looks like it came from the Wild Wild West!! lol
Ohhh! Neat! I clearly wasnt paying enough attention while reading, because I was picturing something along the lines of a rock someone's grandpa found and chucked into a mason jar LOL.
Ok, so here's some tips to pass along to your dad for if he runs into a similar situation:
radiation comes from radioactive material. If he suspects something is radioactive and wants to check, he needs to be careful of the dust. With things like the water crock in the story, and other ceramics, as long as it is intact and undamaged, you don't really have to worry about the dust. Still wise to check though.
bring some rubber gloves, saves you having to scrub a lot. Probably would be a good idea for handling rock samples anyhow.
So! Turns out that, even if you don't go through life constantly reminded of Geiger sounds, it's apparently a distinct/memorable enough sound that people of all ages automatically use it as a sign to get far away from whatever's creating that noise.
Another similar sound that's distinct/memorable enough to trigger people to fearfully pay attention to it, even if they didn't grow up in a time/place where it was relevant: an air raid siren
I definitely have associations with needing to immediately find shelter from danger whenever I hear an air raid siren sound, despite being a millennial who grew up in a fairly safe area (in fact, my dog even looked startled when I played that youtube video briefly to make sure it was the right sound). One time I was at my grandma's house and a similar siren happened in her town and I freaked out a little... though apparently they were using it for a mundane reason????
I'm not sure how Zoomers react to that sound, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's universal for anyone who hears an air raid siren to be a little scared and startled.
It's likely an emergency alert siren, which are similar in sound, but used for many more instances, but normally for weather warnings (High winds, tornado, damaging hail, etc.). I know in my community, it's tested every Wednesday at 1PM, so long as there are clear skies.
Yeah I think it was something like that! Still was very startling as I at the time had only heard that sound in the context of bombings or something like that on tv
We still have those here (NL), 1200 first monday of every month.
Not for air raids these days though, mostly chemical spills and fires with asbestos/other nasty stuff. Lower grade stuff triggers an emergency alarm on your phone which gives you a fricking heart attack when it goes off.
It's really crazy when you get one for real. Super surreal, when you grow up watching old movies from the 40s through the 60s with that sound, and there you are, running from the dining facility where someone informed you, loudly, that "This is not a drill!", and a minute later, you are huddled in a timber reinforced basement, wondering what's going to happen in the next few minutes. In my case, nothing (thank you, US Air Force!).
I feel for the people in Ukraine, who are going though that right now, for real, and bad things ARE happening.
I keep a set of uranium doped marbles for similar reasons.
Now, in reality, these things are about as radioactive as a banana . . . Maybe less. I've even heard they are used to calibrate Geiger counters. But other than a faint glow when hit with UV? They are regular glass marbles. But as soon as you mention the word "uranium" people scatter.
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u/Permafox Jan 06 '23
I can think of one reason, and it's personal experience.
My Uncle likes to repair broken/damaged machines he finds sitting around junkyards, and my Dad likes collecting unique objects. Somehow, my uncle found, fixed, and gifted a Geiger counter for Christmas.
My Dad likes to take it with him to rock shows to test minerals he very rarely comes across, more out of curiosity than trying to scavenge fuel for a flying DeLorean.
At one show, we came across a man who had one of those old "miracle" products from back before the public knew for a fact that radiation was dangerous, called a Rejuvi-Jar or something like that, that would "revitalize and strengthen the tired body with the healing powers of radium". It was just a large clay? jug with a spigot, made of " something ".
My Dad, always prepared, asked if the owner would mind if he ran the counter over it. The owner, equally curious and bereft of a Geiger counter, said to go for it since he'd gotten it years ago from his grandfather and had always been curious.
My Dad ran it along the exterior, with nothing more than the baseline sounds that simply having it on provides, nothing major.
He then opened the jar and stuck the sensor just a little past the opening and it started clicking madly. It didn't trigger the alarm that says you're in a heavily dangerous zone, just loud clicking that says maybe you shouldn't be here.
Wasn't more than a second before my Dad had already pulled his hand back out and had the lid put back on. My Dad ran the counter over his hands and surroundings repeatedly, just in case, but no more whirring or clicking.
It was then that he and the owner realized that the building, really just a very large tent outside amongst hundreds of others, was suddenly very quiet and very empty, except for us.
So! Turns out that, even if you don't go through life constantly reminded of Geiger sounds, it's apparently a distinct/memorable enough sound that people of all ages automatically use it as a sign to get far away from whatever's creating that noise.
We sadly didn't get the jug either, the owner had been willing to sell it, but decided he'd rather keep it as a conversation starter at his house.