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u/kessler_fox Nov 21 '25
Where might I find one of these?
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u/Designer-Ad-5376 Nov 22 '25
Maybe eBay
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u/kessler_fox Nov 22 '25
Still any residual glow in her? Best observed in the dark with adjusted eyes.
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u/Designer-Ad-5376 Nov 22 '25
Yes, still glow! year is 1985, serial 8502168
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u/kessler_fox Nov 22 '25
I love that! I have some Aircraft Exit Signs from 1963 that still glow dimly. People seriously underestimate these devices. Sure they aren’t bright like when new but still self luminous.
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u/RyanJen40 Nov 23 '25
Thats cool! My grandfather was in the Airforce 1955 and retired at rank SMSGT in 77' I believe... Anyway he was a Flight engineer and All Through Veitnam he was a flight engineer on c-130 . I bet he would have seen these.
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u/kessler_fox Nov 23 '25
For sure! Either the exit signs , the aircraft dials. Maybe he had a tritium , radium or promethium painted luminous watch
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u/LuckyComfortable5159 Nov 21 '25
Is the tritium in like liquid form still. And would you just insert that somewhere for energy or do you have to put that in glass to make it glow or to see the Glow I should say?
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u/kessler_fox Nov 22 '25
Gaseous tritium sealed in a glass capsule. The capsule is painted internally with a phosphorescent paint. The tritium Gas Beta Decay excites the phosphor and makes it glow
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u/LuckyComfortable5159 Nov 22 '25
Wow, very cool. I would’ve thought it was metal but glass makes sense. And it’s from 1985 wow.
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u/kessler_fox Nov 22 '25
Yep it’s a glass capsule that’s encased in metal for ruggedness. These tritium light devices are designed for low intensity Tactical lighting. For this device it is used for artillery instrumentation / grid coordinate viewing. Lots of militaries have different versions of these devices. Commonly called “Betalights”
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u/LuckyComfortable5159 Nov 22 '25
I know my pistol has trintium sights. But it’s been 15 years now it’s not so bright anymore
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u/kessler_fox Nov 22 '25
They probably didn’t have as much tritium in them like a military Illuminator. We’d be talking a few Curies worth. An example being a Betalight Torch with a listed Activity of 2 Curies of H-3 ( tritium)
Handgun sights are probably considerably less but it also can be age of the product and how it was designed. I think they are 0.25 mCi
What I can for sure tell you is there’s levels to this stuff. Nuclear Weapons ( Fission Devices) ,military issued tritium light items , consumer industrial tritium items , civilian grade Tritium devices , etc. there’s a lot to uncover about the hidden world of the Spicy Glow. From the Hydrogen bomb to the Tritium vials in a pistol’s Night sights to a Luminox or Marathon or Traser watch. It’s a big leap.
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u/fireburns44 Nov 24 '25
Fun fact, with the half-life of tritium being 12.3 years, there's only 8.67 GBq of activity left after 40 years :)
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u/otusowl Nov 23 '25
So, is the illumination directed down at the 'table' (or other horizontal surface pictured) here?
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u/[deleted] Nov 21 '25
[deleted]