Thanks. Some people complain about my camera work, like when I'm holding the camera and talking to it. Sometimes I move a little too much for people. I've been trying to keep it a little smoother.
I find it funny how a lot of people may say that owning/looking for radioactive objects is dangerious. Which is ironic consideirng how looking for radioactive items (Uranium ore, Thorium ore, etc) will probobly benefit someone's health as you will be going out more, doing more physical activity and (hopefully) taking proper caution and treating these items with respect they deserve. (Not to mention these sources are far less active then most people think) Just something I was thinking about as a lot of people say owning like half a gram of Uranium ore in a lead case is the equvalant of fast pass to the pearly gates. Keep up the great content Drew.
5:35 I'm randomly reminded of the Radium Girls when I see gauges like this. For anyone not familiar, they were factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting radium dials with self-luminous paint in factories in Illinois, Connecticut and New Jersey before 1920. I think it was more so watch dials and hands. They told them that the paint was harmless, but they ingested deadly amounts of radiation because they told the women to rub the brushes on their lips/tongue to make them pointed so that it would be a fine tip. They didn't want them using rags or water because it cost more for the time and material. That ended up changing some labor laws, a whole lot of lawsuits and I still don't feel like there was enough accountability.
Few weeks ago I thought to check the gauges in my 1955 UniMog 404. The Speedo was hot enough I could detect it a meter away. Close in it easily set off alarms in my Radiacode 101.
Nice to have a couple young helpers in charge of the Better Geiger! I learned how to fly in a 1972 Piper Cherokee. Pretty sure it didn't have radium-painted instruments, but they WERE painted with fluorescent paint. Instead of having modern-style internal "backlight" illumination, there was a single overhead incandescent(?) UV bulb that caused all of the gauges to glow at once, like a black light poster.
We have a really cool museum out here in Mass. The Collings Foundation living history museum. They have the largest private tank collection in the world. They also have a fleet of WW1 and WW2 aircraft. All the tanks they have all run and drive. Including the M1 A1 Abrams. I bet some of those vehicles have radio active gauges! Thanks for sharing a really cool museum. On my list!
Amazing how much radium was used world wide. I have my Grandfathers WW2 British Army Compass (he was a gunner in the 8th Army in Italy, Middle East and North Africa) that has radium paint on it. I get approx 3000 CPM with my geiger.
Bovington tank museum in England, have tested all vehicles for radiation on dials and have register on these. Also, they have radiation officer who is responsible maintaining the records and procedures and policies. So at lest in that museum they keep eye of these radium dials.
There are a couple of places that sell these dials online. Problem is getting one that you know has radium...if that's what your after. Usually the radium ones have a certain color to the paint...most of the time. I've found a bunch of dials out in shops over the years and bought some online.
It occurred to me that if you had had something like a selfie stick on which you could mount your gauge, you might get closer to the instrument panel without having to actually get into the cockpit you were fenced out of.
I've thought about this before. I did something like that at the EBR-1 site to check the radiation of the nuclear jet engines they have in the parking lot.
Soviet aircraft like that Mig, all had the same EZ on the eye green cockpit paint finish. Very practical was those Soviets. By the war I think Canadian radium (where most of the supplies came from) was about $38,000 per ounce. Military dials and engraved marking required I think about 20µ gram to 40µ gram strength radium paint. For comparison, wrist watches that could be held up closer to the eyes was about 1.8µ grams. At 8:50 thats a Royal Navy de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk. Its got a private ownership reg N856WP which means it is still licenced to fly (expiration date is June 30, 2031) and was once operated by the Dartmouth Royal Naval College, hence the lower reg number WP856.
Now see, that super interesting...the micro gram amounts used for different items. I figured it was much higher than civilian time pieces because all the gauges I find are smokin hot compared to a watch.
Awesome! There’s an aircraft museum about an hour and a half away from where I live. Went to it a couple years ago before I had any survey meters. I’ll need to go back with my RadEye.
Love all that world war 2 stuff! My family is from San Diego where I grew up, and I remember grandma telling me about the blackout they had all during the war. You weren't allowed to turn on your headlights to drive at night, and the street lights were off. One night after a long game of cards she had to drive one of her friends home and it was such a harrowing experience trying to navigate through the city WITH NO LIGHTS AT ALL that she swore she would never drive at night again until after the war was over. And she didn't. That's one reason glow in the dark stuff was so popular then. You could still read dials and gauges without breaking blackout rules which could cost you a heavy fine!
@@RadioactiveDrew I would imagine so because the blackout rules were in place for quite a while. The rule was that you couldn't have any lights on that were visible outside that would be bright enough to be seen from the sea. Japanese submarines were spotted numerous times just off the coast and everyone was fully expecting an attack at any moment. One Japanese submarine shelled an oil refinery in Santa Barbara.Turns out that decades later secret plans by the Japanese military to firebomb San Diego were discovered. Each city block had an air raid warden who would volunteer to patrol their block to enforce the blackout rules and issue citations if necessary. Anyone violating the order was subject to criminal penalties and expulsion from the West coast, so it was serious business. My grandpa was the air raid warden for his block on 34th street in San Diego.
I wonder if they would have anything radioactive. I only question it because usually at sites that monitor radioactive material or arms they are much more concerned about other sources that might give them a false positive on something.
Just fyi, some older planes have flight control weights that I think use DU and are painted to shield the radiation. Modern jets also have Kryption-85 gas in the ignition exciter boxes but they are sealed.
Very true, these are items I know I'm going to find in an area like this. Still its fun to find them. Usually the surprises are the other instruments there, like the bomb sight or something like that.
The USA airmen from 80 years ago were 1 foot shorter and 50 lbs. lighter than today. That is why even the fighting equipment was to small to fit into! Did you ever see the tiny civil war uniforms that were worn 160 years ago ? They were the size of Cub Scouts uniforms of 50 years ago.( Unfortunate that current unifoms are twice as large around the waist)
It's not just being shorter. A friend of mine's father was in the Army in World War II. He was just over 6 ft and 142 lb. My brother was in the Navy during Vietnam and he was about the same.
@ Well, it seems to me that's just the point. Men generally didn't bulk up. Going out of the way to bulk up may result in a fashionable and spectacular physique, but isn't particularly healthy. I would blame modern movies, especially action cartoons, for the fashion.
They can't trademark historical photos. Any photos or videos the government produces is public domain. I also make sure to check the copyright on every photo I use.
Its nice they let you get so close. I wonder the if LEM in Washington DC is radio active. The docking sights should be if they were not taken out. But there would be no wat you could get that close to it.
The museum web sight said it was plugged in. I quote _"The target has a standoff cross and is illuminated using power from the Command Module electrical system."_ The photo shows a lead with a plug on the end too.
7:52 you show 56 kcpm , you don't say how "hot"-dangerous this is. What is your advice/opinion? Would sitting next to that gauge on an eight hour flight possible affect you? peaked at 68 k
8 hour flight with a gauge like this arms length away isn't that bad, as far as radiation exposure is concerned. But it all depends on how close you are to it and for how long.
Nice definitely will consider because of you. Thanks for the recommendation friend ♾️🙏 interesting the Russians didnt expose their troops to background radiation.
Well it might have been just for that model of MiG. I have a cockpit mounted clock that is doped with radium and apparently it came out of a MiG as well...but who knows for sure.
What I find worrying is that museums and many collectors of old military vehicles, do not sufficiently recognize the dangers associated with radium. The issue is that those instrument panels are not completely hermetically sealed units. Over time, as the paint begins to decay and flake away. The small particles containing radium from the paint become dust and spread everywhere. Then someone unlucky enough to breathe this kind of dust into their lungs, for example during maintenance work, You have to remember, how long radium remains radioactive and in practice, that means that when these museum airplanes or vehicles are practically a pile of rusty dust in the future, they still have radioactive radium there too.
It’s amazing (to me) how long those (4) gauges inside the plane have been consistently throwing out billions of particles every hour of everyday for decades and decades.
The radiation coming off of these gauges would only be a problem if you were very close to them for long periods of time for years and years. They aren't making anything radioactive from the radiation they are giving off.
“Roasted nuts! Come get ya roasted nuts!” Always a fun time out Radioactive Drew
I realy enjoy your calm camera and cutting work ❤
If only more ppl would work this way.
Thank you !
Thanks. Some people complain about my camera work, like when I'm holding the camera and talking to it. Sometimes I move a little too much for people. I've been trying to keep it a little smoother.
@RadioactiveDrew : For me it's perfect 👌
I find it funny how a lot of people may say that owning/looking for radioactive objects is dangerious.
Which is ironic consideirng how looking for radioactive items (Uranium ore, Thorium ore, etc) will probobly benefit someone's health as you will be going out more, doing more physical activity and (hopefully) taking proper caution and treating these items with respect they deserve. (Not to mention these sources are far less active then most people think)
Just something I was thinking about as a lot of people say owning like half a gram of Uranium ore in a lead case is the equvalant of fast pass to the pearly gates.
Keep up the great content Drew.
I loved the stack of Radio Transmitters inside the C-46F Commando.... man that's my jam! Love radios!
Speaking of radios, I did your WRT-54GL profile pic 😀
@@42VS42 yeah, i used to test all kinds of WiFi equipment back in the day. It was mainly my job. Now, 20 years on, i test other stuff. ;)
The WRT-54G profile picture, i miss mine, really good router
Thanks for sharing a neat bit of history. Happy New Year to you and family.
No problem, thanks for watching and the comment.
5:35 I'm randomly reminded of the Radium Girls when I see gauges like this. For anyone not familiar, they were factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning from painting radium dials with self-luminous paint in factories in Illinois, Connecticut and New Jersey before 1920. I think it was more so watch dials and hands. They told them that the paint was harmless, but they ingested deadly amounts of radiation because they told the women to rub the brushes on their lips/tongue to make them pointed so that it would be a fine tip. They didn't want them using rags or water because it cost more for the time and material. That ended up changing some labor laws, a whole lot of lawsuits and I still don't feel like there was enough accountability.
Just to clarify, they weren't ingesting deadly amounts of radiation...they were ingesting radium which happens to be radioactive.
@@RadioactiveDrew Certainly. The material itself caused the problem and just happened to be emitting in the process when they ingested it.
same here, i instantly thought of them. poor women.
Few weeks ago I thought to check the gauges in my 1955 UniMog 404. The Speedo was hot enough I could detect it a meter away. Close in it easily set off alarms in my Radiacode 101.
Nice to have a couple young helpers in charge of the Better Geiger! I learned how to fly in a 1972 Piper Cherokee. Pretty sure it didn't have radium-painted instruments, but they WERE painted with fluorescent paint. Instead of having modern-style internal "backlight" illumination, there was a single overhead incandescent(?) UV bulb that caused all of the gauges to glow at once, like a black light poster.
We have a really cool museum out here in Mass. The Collings Foundation living history museum. They have the largest private tank collection in the world. They also have a fleet of WW1 and WW2 aircraft. All the tanks they have all run and drive. Including the M1 A1 Abrams. I bet some of those vehicles have radio active gauges! Thanks for sharing a really cool museum. On my list!
I'll have to put that on my map of places to check out. Thanks for letting me know.
Amazing how much radium was used world wide. I have my Grandfathers WW2 British Army Compass (he was a gunner in the 8th Army in Italy, Middle East and North Africa) that has radium paint on it. I get approx 3000 CPM with my geiger.
Radium was used very heavily in the past. Makes antique hunting very interesting that's for sure.
Bovington tank museum in England, have tested all vehicles for radiation on dials and have register on these.
Also, they have radiation officer who is responsible maintaining the records and procedures and policies.
So at lest in that museum they keep eye of these radium dials.
That's pretty cool. Way better than them replacing the dials.
Sounds like it was a fun time, and those dials for sale in the end, i would totally buy one.
There are a couple of places that sell these dials online. Problem is getting one that you know has radium...if that's what your after. Usually the radium ones have a certain color to the paint...most of the time. I've found a bunch of dials out in shops over the years and bought some online.
It occurred to me that if you had had something like a selfie stick on which you could mount your gauge, you might get closer to the instrument panel without having to actually get into the cockpit you were fenced out of.
I've thought about this before. I did something like that at the EBR-1 site to check the radiation of the nuclear jet engines they have in the parking lot.
Nothing hot in the Mig. Surprised!
It would be fun to ride in the B-29. :)
No kidding...it was a super impressive machine.
Wifes hates Geiger counters🤣
My wife doesn't mind the Geiger counters...she's just not thrilled about some of the sources I have.
@ I Totally get that!!
Soviet aircraft like that Mig, all had the same EZ on the eye green cockpit paint finish. Very practical was those Soviets. By the war I think Canadian radium (where most of the supplies came from) was about $38,000 per ounce. Military dials and engraved marking required I think about 20µ gram to 40µ gram strength radium paint. For comparison, wrist watches that could be held up closer to the eyes was about 1.8µ grams.
At 8:50 thats a Royal Navy de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunk. Its got a private ownership reg N856WP which means it is still licenced to fly (expiration date is June 30, 2031) and was once operated by the Dartmouth Royal Naval College, hence the lower reg number WP856.
Now see, that super interesting...the micro gram amounts used for different items. I figured it was much higher than civilian time pieces because all the gauges I find are smokin hot compared to a watch.
Awesome! There’s an aircraft museum about an hour and a half away from where I live. Went to it a couple years ago before I had any survey meters. I’ll need to go back with my RadEye.
Oh, I'm sure you'll find something there.
Love all that world war 2 stuff! My family is from San Diego where I grew up, and I remember grandma telling me about the blackout they had all during the war. You weren't allowed to turn on your headlights to drive at night, and the street lights were off. One night after a long game of cards she had to drive one of her friends home and it was such a harrowing experience trying to navigate through the city WITH NO LIGHTS AT ALL that she swore she would never drive at night again until after the war was over. And she didn't. That's one reason glow in the dark stuff was so popular then. You could still read dials and gauges without breaking blackout rules which could cost you a heavy fine!
That is very interesting. I wonder if the radium markers that were added to bridges back in that time had anything to do with that light discipline?
@@RadioactiveDrew I would imagine so because the blackout rules were in place for quite a while. The rule was that you couldn't have any lights on that were visible outside that would be bright enough to be seen from the sea. Japanese submarines were spotted numerous times just off the coast and everyone was fully expecting an attack at any moment. One Japanese submarine shelled an oil refinery in Santa Barbara.Turns out that decades later secret plans by the Japanese military to firebomb San Diego were discovered. Each city block had an air raid warden who would volunteer to patrol their block to enforce the blackout rules and issue citations if necessary. Anyone violating the order was subject to criminal penalties and expulsion from the West coast, so it was serious business. My grandpa was the air raid warden for his block on 34th street in San Diego.
Great video, but I do wish you’d show us the Usv/hr reading as well considering CPM is quite different for each detector
Should try this at the Titan Missile Museum
I wonder if they would have anything radioactive. I only question it because usually at sites that monitor radioactive material or arms they are much more concerned about other sources that might give them a false positive on something.
Just fyi, some older planes have flight control weights that I think use DU and are painted to shield the radiation. Modern jets also have Kryption-85 gas in the ignition exciter boxes but they are sealed.
I've seen one of those DU weights before at the Trinity site. Still looking for my own brick of DU.
Yes. And some large air craft have DU in the wings to de-tune them. Otherwise, they start literally flapping.
I'm thinking the gauges are a soft target for you. Discovering a radio active bomber that's been exposed to nukes or testing is more your style 👍
Very true, these are items I know I'm going to find in an area like this. Still its fun to find them. Usually the surprises are the other instruments there, like the bomb sight or something like that.
The USA airmen from 80 years ago were 1 foot shorter and 50 lbs. lighter than today. That is why even the fighting equipment was to small to fit into! Did you ever see the tiny civil war uniforms that were worn 160 years ago ? They were the size of Cub Scouts uniforms of 50 years ago.( Unfortunate that current unifoms are twice as large around the waist)
It's not just being shorter. A friend of mine's father was in the Army in World War II. He was just over 6 ft and 142 lb. My brother was in the Navy during Vietnam and he was about the same.
@CAMacKenzie I appreciate your response. A bulked up 6 ft. service man should be pushing 200 lbs these days. Don't you think.
@ Well, it seems to me that's just the point. Men generally didn't bulk up. Going out of the way to bulk up may result in a fashionable and spectacular physique, but isn't particularly healthy. I would blame modern movies, especially action cartoons, for the fashion.
@CAMacKenzie LoL Can you imagine the cast of the movie Predator, trying to fit in the tiny spaces of that B29 or a little sub from WW2 ?
0:53 The Enola Gay B-29 is a registered trademark of the US Army
They can't trademark historical photos. Any photos or videos the government produces is public domain. I also make sure to check the copyright on every photo I use.
@@RadioactiveDrew Hey Drew! noooo I was kidding, referencing the giant (R) on the plane in that frame. You can do no wrong in my book, I'm a big fan ☢
Its nice they let you get so close. I wonder the if LEM in Washington DC is radio active. The docking sights should be if they were not taken out. But there would be no wat you could get that close to it.
What's the LEM?
The museum web sight said it was plugged in. I quote _"The target has a standoff cross and is illuminated using power from the Command Module electrical system."_ The photo shows a lead with a plug on the end too.
7:52 you show 56 kcpm , you don't say how "hot"-dangerous this is. What is your advice/opinion? Would sitting next to that gauge on an eight hour flight possible affect you? peaked at 68 k
8 hour flight with a gauge like this arms length away isn't that bad, as far as radiation exposure is concerned. But it all depends on how close you are to it and for how long.
B-29 bad motor+ parked =awaiting parts a/or money
I would like to know how much that B-29 cost to purchase.
very goood
Thanks.
Nice definitely will consider because of you. Thanks for the recommendation friend ♾️🙏 interesting the Russians didnt expose their troops to background radiation.
Well it might have been just for that model of MiG. I have a cockpit mounted clock that is doped with radium and apparently it came out of a MiG as well...but who knows for sure.
I guess Radium? use/application was safer by WW2?
For sure radium, was the only thing they would use to make glow in the dark paint back then.
仪表盘上面的夜光镭？😄
🤔Your Son Has Quite The Lisp🤔
He’s my friends son and he has braces he’s getting use to.
What I find worrying is that museums and many collectors of old military vehicles, do not sufficiently recognize the dangers associated with radium.
The issue is that those instrument panels are not completely hermetically sealed units.
Over time, as the paint begins to decay and flake away. The small particles containing radium from the paint become dust and spread everywhere.
Then someone unlucky enough to breathe this kind of dust into their lungs, for example during maintenance work,
You have to remember, how long radium remains radioactive and in practice, that means that when these museum airplanes or vehicles are practically a pile of rusty dust in the future, they still have radioactive radium there too.
@@Aztecpa23🚬Chuck Probably Smoked...🚬
@@Aztecpa23🚬Did Chuck Smoke?🚬
Lived there for many years and never went to that museum 😐
I use to live around that area as well and this was my first time going to the museum.
It’s amazing (to me) how long those (4) gauges inside the plane have been consistently throwing out billions of particles every hour of everyday for decades and decades.
The radiation coming off of these gauges would only be a problem if you were very close to them for long periods of time for years and years. They aren't making anything radioactive from the radiation they are giving off.
I am really surprised to see NO radioactive dials in Russian MIG. How is that possible?
Probably was a newer one. He said it was shot down in Vietnam and radium dials where mostly replaced with tritium. That’s my guess.