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Old 06-21-2006, 11:18 AM
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Don Halter Don Halter is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Katy, TX
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The old Coleman lantern mantles are pretty cool. The notice on them says " Contain a substance known to cause cancer in the state of CA." I live in TX, so I never worried about them! Hah!

How about thorated tungstens? Same concept as the lantern mantles. Thorium works well in hi-temp applications....it just happens to be radioactive. Don't forget naturally occuring potassium in bannanas...or C-14 in our bodies! Our nuclear engineering student group used to have shirts that had a glowing condom and "You get more radiation from sleeping with someone, than living near a nuclear power plant!" printed underneath it. Check out your building's exit signs. Are they self-illuminating without any power cord? Think it's battery operated......wrong! These usually have about 1-3 Ci of tritium in them. The same thing that makes watch faces glow non-stop. Nothing to be worried about working around, but you wouldn't want to smash it open either.

I have old X-ray tubes and gas-laser tubes also. These are pretty neat looking as well.


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Last edited by Don Halter; 06-21-2006 at 11:22 AM.
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