[Milsurplus] Radioactive OA2 tubes?

[J. Forster]

"60s is post WW II :)

Some have solid elments. Cobalt maybe?

-Jo9hn

=============


> Actually the warnings are a 60's thing.  A small percentage of the gas in
> the tube is the or one of the radioactive isotopes of that gas.  I never
> did
> understand the logic of the comment about cuts in the warning.  What you
> wouldn't want to do would be to inhale right over a tube that had just
> been
> broken.
>
> In a message dated 9/26/2010 1:48:45 PM Central Daylight Time,
> jfor at quik.com writes:
>> My guess is that all gas tubes, including Regulators, indicators, and
>> T/R
>> Tubes, have radioactive solids or gas in them in small quantities.
>> There
>> may well have been differences between manufacturers.
>>
>> I suspect the manual cautions were a post WW II caution, when concern
>> about radioactivity grew.
>>
>> FWIW,
>>
>> -John
>>
>> ==============
>>
>>
>> >The Wikipedia entry on gas discharge regulator tubes states that some
>> of
>> >these
>> >contained small amounts of radionuclides to facilitate ionization. The
>> >benefit
>> >would be more reliable turn-on, meaning lower striking voltage or if
>> the
>> >tubes are
>> >in the dark.
>> >
>> >It would be interesting to know how tube that were enhanced in this way
>> >were
>> >marked. I wonder why they weren't given a different designation, since
>> >they
>> >are
>> >really a different tube?
>
> Robert & Susan Downs - Houston
> wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
> MVPA 9480
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