r/Radium

Antique store find 5 dollars.01336 cpm

I’m pretty new to collecting, any the first 2 I got were real mild, but she’s my first SPICY clock. Really good condition for 24 bucks!
In the store, she was right next to a newer model without radium lol
I’m so happy!

HELLO!

one of my dads friends gifted me this yugoslavian clock from the 50s, i think, and i realised it has radium or something alike, atleast. the numbers glow for like 30 seconds after i use my UV flashlight.

my grandpa DISASSEMLED THE THING and its now in a plastic bag. i really want to reassemble it because it looks nice, but i dont know if it would be safe. the glass seems to be attached, but i cant be sure, maybe it has scratches. is it safe to take it out to try quickly reassembling it?

i attached photos of it now and before my grandpa decided to do that, i hope that helps?? im worried.

Luminous No. 634

Oxygen Cylinder Pressure gauge.

I went months without finding one once I started to look, but now they keep coming. Haven’t seen this one posted on here before I don’t think!

I have collected about 6 radium dial clocks to go with my uranium glass collection. (Most of which I have attached pictures of here).

They all appear to be in good condition, and once I took them home and placed them on my shelf, I've hardly touched them at all. The shelf is right beside a window in our living room, and we keep the window open most of the summer.

Do I need to take more precautions? Reading this book has gotten me a bit more paranoid about the possibility of paint flaking and somehow getting out of the glass fronts and into my body, and some things on this subreddit have me more paranoid about the radon gas the radium makes. Please give me all your knowledge, and sources are greatly appreciated. I want to honour the women who painted these dials, by respecting these clocks.

Found at my local antique store. At first I thought it was the same exact compass I already had, so I didn’t bother to check it. As I walked away, I thought “wait, it could be orange lume”….and to my surprise it actually was. So now I have a matching set of orange and green. There are very slight differences, but it’s the same part number.

So not only do I need to find more instruments/gauges, I need both colors of each.

I normally don't check the clocks.

Got lucky this time ( get it.. time).

And still works kind of.

Gonna put it in a zip lock bag at home.

Cause Radium dust.

Got this Phinney-Walker clock at a flea market today for $10, and I thought I might have scored a pretty good find.

It’s marked “Made in Germany” on the back and appears to be a genuine vintage clock. The numbers and hands glow, and they get quite bright under a blacklight. Once I remove the blacklight, though, the glow fades pretty quickly.

I tested it with a GMC-300S Geiger counter. My background reading is around 15–20 CPM. The clock usually reads around 20–30 CPM, and I've seen it reach about 40 CPM. Interestingly, I get roughly the same readings from both the front and the back of the clock.

I'm trying to figure out what kind of luminous material this actually uses. Is it radium, another radioactive lume such as promethium, or simply non-radioactive phosphorescent paint?

I've found information suggesting these German-made Phinney-Walker clocks are genuine vintage pieces, and I've also seen similar clocks reported as radioactive. But the relatively low Geiger reading on mine has me confused.

Does anyone recognize this specific model or know what type of lume was used on these German-made Phinney-Walker clocks? Any information on the approximate date, model, or experience testing similar examples would be greatly appreciated.

Really need some sos 😭

Got a pretty good deal on these, the first one is a sperry type 3 out of a post ww2 cessna so nothing crazy. The second is from a BD5 jet, technically one of the smallest jets in the world and featured in a James bond movie.

Finally got my hands on a nice spicy piece of aviation history.

I was gifted the frequency meter, airspeed indicator is out of an F4U, 20$ at a flea market. Nothing above background on the meter. I'm guessing not radium...

Saw this at an antique store. Being sold for parts, I think for around $30-40.

I bought a 1951 Better Homes and Gardens and I found this spicy ad and thought I’d share!