Wartime Luminous Para Disc ?

[garys39]

Hi, I bought this today at a carboot (in a jewellery box, I was looking for badges), I've searched and can only find the link below, which has the photos deleted.

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ight=para+disc

Does anybody have photos or can it be identified by anyone ? Is it a wartime piece, it only has "POISON INSIDE" on it, and no other marks.
Thanks Gary

[garys39]

Reverse side

[tylis2]

The US made ones had the 'poison' marked on the back. Here's a link with some photos. http://www.pararesearchteam.com/Airb...borne-014.html
Nice find! Let me know if you want to get rid of it. Steve T

[SMP]

Really interesting ! Did the seller know what it was ?

[DJT]

It's a good one. I've had a few of these in the past but got rid of them due to the radioactivity issue.

[lnijherald]

It is not very radioactive:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pe...ioactivity.svg

Luc

[stray_dog]

It seems like the use of radioactive material like tritium was a common practice in the military equipment industry of the time. Compasses, arty piece orientation instruments and luminous disks among other things did contain it. It was a way to luminate the devices without the use of electric means on the frontline.

While glowing radioactive stuff may give us the creeps today, that was not the case even years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, when the radioactivity effects had not yet been fully researched.

Cheers, Giorgos

[Beau Brummel.]

It's not tritium It's radium.

Whilst It may not seem all that dangerous, If the cell Is broken, the radium leaking and you Ingest some then you are f###d!

You did the right thing Des!

Yours, Guy.

[lnijherald]

Meltingpoint is 973 Kelvin, it won't leak.

Luc

[DJT]

Hi Luc,

Well personally I don't trust an item that is 60+ years old to remain perfectly sealed. More importantly however a collector with one of these wartime discs asked a qualified US scientist who specializes in radiation safety if they were safe. The scientist stated the following: 'Until the mid 1960s, the radioluminescent material consisted of a mix of ²²⁶Ra and zinc sulfide (ZnS). From what I have seen, the activities ranged from 5 to 15 microcuries (one microcurie of ²²⁶Ra is equivalent to one microgram). A good guess therefore would be 10 uCi. My personal opinion is that devices with this amount of radium should be turned over to the state radiation control program. Sooner or later, someone is likely to open them up and the resulting mess could require a relatively expensive cleanup.' That reply alone is enough for me to avoid these in the future. If others are happy to own them, fair enough!

[lnijherald]

I believe it to be roughly equal to background radiation levels, unless you've been playing with depleted uranium ammo.

If you ever find one, feel free to send it to me.

Luc

[Marc Sherriff]

It seems that collectors can have items containing RADIUM, but, museums have to have them destroyed, such as the issued watch, compass, sight (Artillery and SA), instruments, instrument pannels in vehicles and aircraft, and some wireless (radio) items.

[lnijherald]

museums have to have them destroyed

Don't always expect a rational approach from a museum. Radiation and todays claim culture are a volatile mix.

Luc

[Jean-Loup]

I have a US compas from Viet Nam that says "Danger, radiocative" at the back. I brought is to physics class once where we mesured the radioactivity... It was quite negligeable.
Do you think it may be dangerous?

JL

[lnijherald]

I believe you just answered your own question JL.

Luc