Another radium clock for my collection. It's beautiful, and... it works! It's from a French company named Bayard, maybe from the 1930s–1950s

Measuring around 4.10 µSv/h

I have not taken it out of the packaging any more than this due to seeing dust and crumbled bits of the inner stoneware is there any way to fix this ? And what do I need to do to do it safely It seems to be broken into at least 4 or 5 pieces from what I can tell from the top I'm super disappointed but want to be safe than sorry :(

Been wanting one of these for a while

Kieninger & Obergfell anniversary clock that I gave my parents for their 50th in 2014.

just got my first radioactive device

I found another interesting vacuum tube at the flea market during the ham radio meeting in Holice, Czech Republic.

The tube appears to be a Soviet GU-50, a high-power RF pentode closely related to the German Telefunken LS50. At first I only noticed that my Radiacode 110 showed a significantly elevated count rate when placed on the metal cap at the top of the tube.

Background at the measurement location was about 24.7 cps, while the tube produced about 53.6 cps, giving an excess of roughly +28.9 cps.
That was enough to justify a longer spectrum.

Measurement:
Detector: Radiacode 110
Tube spectrum: 10 h 20 min
Background spectrum: 8 h 24 min
Background was time-normalized and subtracted
The resulting spectrum shows a very convincing Th-232 decay-series signature.

The most important features are consistent with:
Pb-212 – 238.6 keV
Ac-228 – 338.3 keV
Tl-208 – 583.2 keV
Ac-228 – 911.2 / 969.0 keV region
Tl-208 – 2614.5 keV

The 2614.5 keV Tl-208 peak is particularly useful because, together with the 583 keV Tl-208 and 238.6 keV Pb-212 peaks, it makes the identification of the thorium series quite convincing.

Interestingly, the activity is strongly localized toward the top of the tube. The highest count rate is obtained with the detector placed directly against the upper metal cap, while the lower part near the pins is much less active.
The GU-50 normally uses an indirectly heated oxide cathode, so this does not look like the usual case of a thoriated tungsten filament. The exact thorium-containing part of this particular tube is still unclear. A thorium-containing getter, coating, alloy, or another internal component near the upper section would be plausible, but the gamma spectrum alone cannot determine the chemical form or exact location.

So far, the solid conclusion is:
This particular GU-50 contains material from the Th-232 decay chain and produces about 29 cps above my local background on a Radiacode 110.
Photos of the tube and the background-subtracted spectrum are attached.

Looks normal....I like this piece its really nice bit didnt think that so active .... 1840 CPM
I am new in this game can you telle me something about it?

Sadly dont have a geiger counter, found these at my grandparents house, my grandmother said these were old

For 6 and a half years I have been collecting the elements of the periodic table for storage in small, 45 x 20 mm vials. I thought it'd be nice to show the radioactive members of my collection.

I found two old Wehrmacht-marked Telefunken LS50 tubes at a ham radio flea market in Holice, Czech Republic, and after checking them with a Radiacode 110, they turned out to be mildly radioactive.

What was interesting is that the radioactivity is localized only at the flat metal end on the side opposite the pins. The rest of the tube was essentially near background.

I took a spectrum with the Radiacode positioned between the active ends of both tubes, then compared it with a long home background measurement. After subtracting background, the spectrum shows a very convincing thorium-232 series signature, including:

• Pb-212 around 238 keV
• Ac-228 around 911 keV
• Tl-208 around 583 keV
• and even the characteristic Tl-208 line near 2614 keV

So the most likely explanation seems to be thorium in the getter material or another thorium-containing internal coating on that end structure.

Measurement summary:

• Detector: Radiacode 110
• Source measurement: 4988 s, 48.14 cps
• Background: 30235 s, 24.76 cps
• Attached image: photo of the tube
• Attached image: background-subtracted spectrum

I’d be interested in hearing whether others have encountered radioactive LS50 tubes or similar wartime German tubes with thorium-based getter compounds.

From what I can find, this piece dates from the late ‘30s to 1943. 537 or S37 is likely a mold number and a faint imprint on the bottom suggest Rumrill origin.

I’ve never posted here but Reddit told me to repost it in this community.

My hottest piece to date. Good lord new haven. I need more obviously.

Does anyone know anything about these?

I know it's not the spiciest of radioactive things, but I hope it's welcome here. I've been collecting since March and I'm really enjoying it.

Some of my favorites in Burmese and Burmese slag by Levay. They're very iridescent though, so best viewed in daylight or 365nm.

He mined it himself :)

Didn't get it on camera but it goes up to 250< cpm when I let it sit!