I have an old Goverment Geiger counter, uncalibrated since its about 40 years old, But the G Muller tube seems in good condition.
I have been taking some comparative readings of some common substances, which surprised me
A Colemans unused gas mantle produced no additional reading above my background radiation level (approx 20 CPM)
BUT an old Indian gas Mantle shot up to about 200 CPM. Presumably it had some Thorium in it. I assume modern gas mantles dont use the stuff?
An old primitive anti-static brush for cleaning Vinyl Records, increased my background count by a small amount, when placed against the GM tube. Polonium?
My kitchen smoke detector, surprisingly did not increase the background radiation.......until I broke open the plastic which held the detector. When I got a reading of 1200 CPM approx. I guess the plastic stops the low energy Alpha particles.
Got to buy a new detector now.
I have not found any old clocks or watch dials, as yet, that were painted with Radium, to glow in the dark.
The Salt substitute, Potassium Chloride, which your Doctor will advise you to take to protect your heart instead of Salt (Sodium Chloride)
Surprisingly, almost doubled my background radiation level. Could this be due to a natural contamination by Potassium-40? I'm not sure, but a ref book states that Potassium-40 has a half life of 1.2 billion years?
A old Victorian green fired fireplace tile, supposed to be colored with Uranium Oxide showed no Geiger counter response.
I have found an old Radio Valve that shows a slight increase above background. Presumably due
to the gettering agent, or its filament. Make of valve unknown.
And lastly the item I read about which started me off on my radio-active search.
Brazil Nuts ! Yes, I read that they absorbed Radio-activity quite naturally.
The half dozen I bought, showed no increase above
background. Not to be outdone I intend to by a sackful around Christmas time? Or get a more sensitive Geiger counter.
http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/consumer%20products/brazilnuts.htm Anybody aware of any other items I can test?
Evaporated human wee-wee glows in the dark, any one know why?
