3 ms·

It was quite safe, and it would be great for something like this to have a comeback. Now you can build your own Wilson chamber with isopropyl alcohol and some

It was quite safe, and it would be great for something like this to have a comeback. Now you can build your own Wilson chamber with isopropyl alcohol and some youtube instructions, but you’ll have to spend a lot of time to (legally) procure your own test sources. This is sad.

aziaziazi 4y ago
Isn’t there some radioactive material to scrap from the fume detectors ?
- imglorp 4y ago
  Yes and also several ores often found at rock shops, some Fiestaware, uranium glass, add if course radium dial watches. All legal in the US in small quantities and harmless as long as you don't ingest or inhale their dust.
- JKCalhoun 4y ago
  I usually hear them referred to as smoke detectors (U.S.). Some decades ago when I checked mine had a small metal enclosure with a pin-head amount of Americium inside. Pretty sure though that if you live at very high elevations like Denver, Colorado, you'll get vapor trails for free. :-)
  - speed_spread 4y ago
    If you're lucky enough to live in Denver, you'll get much more free radiation from Rocky Flats than from vapor trails.
    - JKCalhoun 4y ago
      (Ha ha, the vapor trails I was referring to should appear within the cloud chamber — I didn't mean the tin-foil-hat kind.)
- arcticbull 4y ago
  The Radioactive Boy Scout has entered the chat. > David typed up a list of sources for fourteen radioactive isotopes..Americium-241, he learned from the Boy Scout atomic-energy booklet, could be found in smoke detectors https://harpers.org/archive/1998/11/the-radioactive-boy-scout/ https://harpers.org/archive/1998/11/the-radioactive-boy-scou...
wahern 4y ago
> but you’ll have to spend a lot of time to (legally) procure your own test sources. As @api mentioned elsethread, you can just buy isotopes from United Nuclear: https://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2_5 https://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2_... You can also buy isotopes from other online scientific supply stores, but they're more of a hassle as they cater to business and institutional customers. In the U.S. I think most (all?) of them, including United Nuclear, are resellers for Spectrum Techniques (https://www.spectrumtechniques.com/about/ https://www.spectrumtechniques.com/about/), which is the commercial outfit working with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to manufacturer and sell so-called exempt quantity isotopes. For most isotopes, including some really nasty ones like Polonium, Federal regulations permit unlicensed possession and sale under a certain quantity. A sample of Polonium for example (I have one on my desk right now), comes on the head of a pin. Building or even just buying and setting up an experimentation or display rig, like a cloud chamber, is much more of a hassle than acquiring the actual isotopes. I never did get around to building a cloud chamber; that sample of Polonium has never left my desk.

aziaziazi 4y ago

Isn’t there some radioactive material to scrap from the fume detectors ?

imglorp 4y ago
Yes and also several ores often found at rock shops, some Fiestaware, uranium glass, add if course radium dial watches. All legal in the US in small quantities and harmless as long as you don't ingest or inhale their dust.
JKCalhoun 4y ago
I usually hear them referred to as smoke detectors (U.S.). Some decades ago when I checked mine had a small metal enclosure with a pin-head amount of Americium inside. Pretty sure though that if you live at very high elevations like Denver, Colorado, you'll get vapor trails for free. :-)
- speed_spread 4y ago
  If you're lucky enough to live in Denver, you'll get much more free radiation from Rocky Flats than from vapor trails.
  - JKCalhoun 4y ago
    (Ha ha, the vapor trails I was referring to should appear within the cloud chamber — I didn't mean the tin-foil-hat kind.)
arcticbull 4y ago
The Radioactive Boy Scout has entered the chat. > David typed up a list of sources for fourteen radioactive isotopes..Americium-241, he learned from the Boy Scout atomic-energy booklet, could be found in smoke detectors https://harpers.org/archive/1998/11/the-radioactive-boy-scout/ https://harpers.org/archive/1998/11/the-radioactive-boy-scou...

wahern 4y ago

> but you’ll have to spend a lot of time to (legally) procure your own test sources. As @api mentioned elsethread, you can just buy isotopes from United Nuclear: https://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2_5 https://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2_... You can also buy isotopes from other online scientific supply stores, but they're more of a hassle as they cater to business and institutional customers. In the U.S. I think most (all?) of them, including United Nuclear, are resellers for Spectrum Techniques (https://www.spectrumtechniques.com/about/ https://www.spectrumtechniques.com/about/), which is the commercial outfit working with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to manufacturer and sell so-called exempt quantity isotopes. For most isotopes, including some really nasty ones like Polonium, Federal regulations permit unlicensed possession and sale under a certain quantity. A sample of Polonium for example (I have one on my desk right now), comes on the head of a pin. Building or even just buying and setting up an experimentation or display rig, like a cloud chamber, is much more of a hassle than acquiring the actual isotopes. I never did get around to building a cloud chamber; that sample of Polonium has never left my desk.