I worked in the nuclear industry for nearly two decades, specializing in radiation monitoring systems (RMS). The final project in that part of my career involved helping design and implement a wide-spectrum directional gamma detection and isotope identification system. While this system had many applications, the project sponsor was Homeland Security, intending to use it in public areas to detect "dirty bombs": The goal of Dirty Bombs isn't to destroy as much as to make a facility unusable. The system used multiple extremely sensitive scintillation detectors arranged in a 3D array along with custom shielding to optimize both sensitivity and directionality. The hard work was the software. Measuring radiation is one of the best examples of the need to apply statistics in the real world. The limitations of the math (and underlying physics) I was using often caused the system hardware to evolve accordingly. As the system improved, background radiation became an increasing concern. The first issue was interference from our own very low-level radioactive sources: We had to upgrade our certified shielded storage cabinet (which weighed hundreds of pounds) to one designed to house high-level sources (which weighed over a ton). We also bought a pallet of lead bricks (another ton) to put inside the cabinet. Then we had to move the whole thing to the other side of the lab, over 30 feet away (the inverse-square law is your friend). Then we had problems with the concrete slab our lab was on. Turned out the rebar used in the slab was lightly radioactive, so we had to put two layers of lead bricks between the lab bench and the floor. We went quite a way down this rabbit hole. For example, the gammas we *were* looking for would also hit the shielding material we used inside the system to improve system directionality, causing an effect called "X-Ray Fluorescence", leading us to design a whole new shielding technology to minimize it (which was actually inspired by an old technology we rediscovered in some declassified Manhattan Project documents). Watching this video made me shudder: My instrument would probably be screaming with multiple alarms were it placed anywhere near FranLab!
@kensmith56944 жыл бұрын
Gammaray spectrometers are also used for making sure that your scrap yard doesn't end up with any nasty things in it. Even stuff like pipe that was used in the oil drilling business can be too radioactive to be legal. For those who don't know: The "crystal" in question is about 10cm on a side or larger and if you could look at it would be clearer than water. When a gammaray is absorbed it makes a little flash of visible light. The energy from the gamma ends up as the energy in the flash. This then goes to a photo detector. The number of electrons that go through the detector depends on the photons in the flash. Thus once calibrated the system gets to measure the energy of each gamma ray instead of just making a click.
@nefariumxxx4 жыл бұрын
May have been the concrete itself instead of the rebar. You'll see it at freeway overpasses too where lots of concrete is used. Natural isotopes in the mix. Her test sources are far from scary. Very weak actually. Go into any antique shop and you will get much more dramatic clicks off orange pottery, uranium glass, and old radium clocks. Don't forget about thoriated camera lenses or camping lantern mantles with radioactive ash in the bottom. I see them often in the shops around town. Nothing to worry about as long as you respect it.
@hullinstruments4 жыл бұрын
Ken Smith you ain’t kidding about stuff ending up in scrapyards. I just received my new Ludlum 3 and Bicron 3” nai(tl) scintillation probe last Thursday. Also got an several retired Bicron plastic portal monitors and area monitors. All of them include massive pieces of plastic scintillation material. Well over a dozen pounds, and will be wonderful for building my own area monitoring detectors. The reason?… My buddy owns a local scrapyard and we are close to Oak Ridge national laboratory. (Home of the atom bomb)… we end up with WAY MORE than our fair share of active sources… maybe it has something to do with our proximity to Oak Ridge? My granddad worked with them years and years ago and security wasn’t as strict back then. But the scrapyard has zero monitoring equipment whatsoever, and they have millions of tons of steel that they’ve purchased over the past decade and a half. It’s kind of an odd set up because it’s owned by two old retired guys who are just stacking this stuff up for a rainy day. They don’t crush or sell anything but copper and nonferrous metals. So every single bit of steel that they’ve ever purchased is still sitting there. I’m setting up a few monitors there… And will be going through the yard looking for dangerous sources. Previously I had several geiger counters but they use regular Geiger-Müller tubes. But scintillation probes are hundreds of times more sensitive than even the biggest pancake tube… And can pick up hot sources from dozens of yards away or more. Hopefully I can keep my buddy safe and find some interesting stuff in the process. I’ve already found way more active stuff than any human shit on… And that was with my old geiger counters.
@nefariumxxx4 жыл бұрын
@@hullinstruments I assume you've heard of the Goiania Accident then....
@kensmith56944 жыл бұрын
@@nefariumxxx Concrete has a big K40 gamma ray peak. Thorium shows up in a lot of odd places.
@TentoesMe4 жыл бұрын
Na, you can't fool us. You just haven't seen your atomic bomb since you moved and wondered what you did with it.
@66zingo Жыл бұрын
I can spend a good part of the day to watch the Fran Lab. I learn something every time. Thanks for your sharing.
@tmwinkler4 жыл бұрын
I know this is irrelevant to the content, but the intro reminds me of 70's PBS shows. Feelin' nostalgic...
@m3snusteve4 жыл бұрын
I think Fran’s so smart she knows a lot of subjects and always has bags of enthusiasm, very interesting a pleasure to watch 😀 look forward to seeing her next video. Thanks.
@MostorAstrakan4 жыл бұрын
You have a specific piece of furniture for hanging bananas on. A banana stand. A banana pendularium. I did not know that such a thing existed, and now I do. Thus my life is enriched.
@FranLab4 жыл бұрын
No life is complete without a banana stand!
@dhpbear24 жыл бұрын
Theoretically, it prevents pests from getting on the bananas, as long as they're not airborne :)
@ordinaryaverageguy764 жыл бұрын
Except they take up space on your kitchen counter even when..... yes, you have no bananas.
@andrew321554 жыл бұрын
My great grandfather was a watchmaker for the Illinois Watch Company, he might have worked on your watch.
@SwingingChoke8 ай бұрын
I love the dual tube design on the probe
@trespire4 жыл бұрын
Fran, glowing in the lab, again !
@rolfmissing45544 жыл бұрын
Yeh, being a geek is hard ... nobody gets what we get excited about :)
@crunchy72004 жыл бұрын
every time she does the intro it puts a big smile on my face for some reason
@MrPenguinLife4 жыл бұрын
I have the exact same model Geiger counter (along with 8 or 9 others), mine is the same re-issued refurbished (repainted gray and renamed) Department of Homeland Security version of the AN/PDR-27S renamed the HDER-G01 which was issued to emgerncy responders, etc. in 2001 / 2002 in order to get some more modern (1970's) units into the field to replace the vintage 1950's Civil Defense CDV-700 meters that some agencies were still using at the time.
@Yaivenov3 жыл бұрын
Ooo, one of my favorite hobbies. I have a few antiques using air ionization chambers, a couple modern units using GM tubes, and I just acquired my first NaI:Th scintillator. Currently working on making my test chamber and collimator for gamma spectroscopy.
@sparthir4 жыл бұрын
That radiation level is bananas! ;)
@hullinstruments4 жыл бұрын
I would highly suggest I send elation probe. It’s so sensitive you can have it sitting next to you in the car, and find hotspots while going 60 miles an hour down the highway. It will help find the general area of a hot source, which can be pinpointed using a separate pancake probe or even a collimator/(lead shielding)around the probe to a allow directional detection. I bought mine from Tom at Irad inc. on eBay. I bought a Bicron nai(tl) probe, and highly recommend him. He also sells DIY kits to build a scintillation probe using plastic detection material. But they aren’t near as sensitive. So you would need a massive 5 inch probe to equal the same sensitivity as the smaller nai(tl). My bike Ron probe gives between 3000 to 5000 background.... and can pick up very weak radioactive sources from several yards away. And somewhat hotter active sources from amazingly far away. Same type of probe they would strapped helicopters and fly over looking for uranium deposits. You really can’t beat a ludlum model 3 running a 2 inch Bicron scintillation probe, and a pancake probe or sheet small geiger counter to help pinpointing.
@davidbono93594 жыл бұрын
Thanks, this was interesting and informative, as always. I suddenly want to look into getting a Geiger counter, even though I have no real need for one. But what would *really* be cool is: an HR Giger counter...
I like the way you hang and display the bananas as a warning to all the other bananas who are thinking of causing trouble.
@madhatte734 жыл бұрын
Good ol' AN/PDR-27, an old friend
@owenmerrick23774 жыл бұрын
I was sold on these when Carl Sagan was sitting in a lava tube (Cosmos!) listening to background radiation and...cosmic rays!
@stevesfascinations15164 жыл бұрын
Loved the pencil intro! I was lucky to get a geiger counter from Electronic Goldmine. Not as nice as yours but still very interesting. Hello from Canada Fran!
@GadgetUK1644 жыл бұрын
Great video Fran =D I sent an old sig gen to JaysVintageJunk recently - first thing he did was check it for radioactivity, and low and behold it was radioactive!!! =O The switches were ex RAF and have glass beads that glow in the dark (and emit radiation). I laughed lol, not what I expected!
@davidbishop57364 жыл бұрын
Take that Geiger counter down to your local welding store and stick it up next to a package of Thoriated Tungsten if you want to see some serious meter deflection! All those clicks will turn into an angry buzz.
@nefariumxxx4 жыл бұрын
I did that and bought one. They are not all that active, quite mild actually. They are only 2% thoriated tungsten and the metal is self-shielding of it's own internal activity. You can find much better test sources in local antique shops. Orange pottery, radium clocks, uranium glass, thoriated camera lenses, etc.
@davidbishop57364 жыл бұрын
@@nefariumxxx The ones I measured have a 350 count per minute for one rod. A pack of ten was close to 4000 counts per minute. Maybe our instruments are of different sensitivity. I am using the Inspector EXP. I even get a substantial count when I wrap the tungsten with aluminum foil.
@nefariumxxx4 жыл бұрын
@@davidbishop5736 Well, for the price of six dollars each, I did not buy ten of them because one was boring.... but my results are less than impressive on an LND-7311 pancake probe which is the 900v version of your 500v inspector tube! Ha ha. I took some wire cutters and cut it into sections to place on the pancake probe. I am more impressed by radium or other test sources, (70,000 CPM from old radium watch hands, for example). And then there's the AM-241 screamer.... or certain vintage spark gap tubes. :)
@davidbishop57364 жыл бұрын
those prices for tungsten are way more than we see in the Seattle area. A pack of 10 3/32" should be pretty close to 20 bucks. Even less than that on Amazon.
@nefariumxxx4 жыл бұрын
@@davidbishop5736 That sounds much better. I just got them at a local pdx welding supply a few years back. For thorium test sources, I have stronger stuff already. One is a large recon / astronomy lens which is very thick and heavy with a yellow tint. It puts out a few mR of shielded gamma and some serious high CPM to pancake probe. It's got enough that I don't keep it in the house for very long. :)
@pointlesstinkering4 жыл бұрын
It would be interesting to wire up one of these to a microcontroller type of thing to collect plot-able statistics/averages over time. And if you have a bunch of them you maybe could set up an array with a synced clock source and compare timing to triangulate directionallity?
@erintyres36093 жыл бұрын
I did something like that recently. The CDV-700 civil defense Geiger counter has a headphone connector that gives 14 volt pulses. I used a potentiometer to drop the voltage, and connected it to a GPIO pin on a Raspberry Pi. Then I wrote a simple Python program to count the time needed to detect 1000 pulses. The programming went very well; the Python language has excellent functions to count low to high transitions on an input pin and excellent functions to measure time. In my home with my device, there are 12.5 counts per minute of background radiation. If Fran did something similar, she could measure how much the watch and the bananas compare to the background. Because the counts arrive at random, you have to measure over a fairly long time to get repeatable answers.
@johnrobinson3574 жыл бұрын
I have not used my counter in years - for good reasons. I found the really nice weston meters i use in my transmitter are radium painted, they stopped glowing a long time ago. But are still very reactive to my civil defence late 60-'s era counter. And the radium paint i bought 30 years ago, holy crap !! The reading scared the poop out of me. Made a lead box and put it in the sump pump hole in the basement. Some of my old tube equipment is more reactive than i would like, i got thru two rooms and stopped playing with the counter. I look at it this way, i've had the stuff since the 80's and it has failed to kill me yet. I will not be around much longer anyway so i will take my chances with whatever exposure i get. Tobacco use will do me in before exposure will.
@CooKiesHouseCannabisCo4 жыл бұрын
aye, make sure you label it as radioactive so that even if you pass... others wont discover it and go about giving themselves future cancer.
@marsgal424 жыл бұрын
I have old camera lenses that drive Geiger counters nuts. When you fly privately to the U.S. they go over the plane with a Geiger counter.
@rich10514144 жыл бұрын
Ah, thorium oxide, great for making optical glass :P
@ryancheckel82782 жыл бұрын
I’m pretty sure I have the same Geiger muller tube. The most shocking item I found was halogen light bulbs… not the filament, not the trapped gas, just the glass that enclosed them.
@cdorcey17354 жыл бұрын
I once saw an article in a magazine (Popular Science?) about physicists who needed to salvage a gun turret from a sunken WW-2 warship in order to get non-radioactive steel. All of the steel produced since atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons was too radioactive for their project. (Wikipedia has an article on "low-background steel" in fact.)
@SEO1223 жыл бұрын
Fran, I flew USAF nuclear reconnaissance on WC-135s for 20 years before retiring. If you want everyday radioactive check sources for your Geiger counter, there is Depression-Era Vaseline green glassware (Uranium in the glass), pre-war orange Fiestaware (Uranium in the glaze), and older Coleman lantern mantles (Thorium), as well as the radium instrument dials you've demonstrated. All will get your radiation instruments clicking happily.
@dougjohnson42662 жыл бұрын
I can remember doing this in high school ecology class. Rock in the parking lot was a nice testing area.
@dahdahditditditditditditda75364 жыл бұрын
Thanks for the video. Like you, I had collected a geiger counter (actually, I have an older one like you have, and also a newer one with a computer interface) - and I was looking for stuff to measure. I could get a tiny hit on a bit of potassium salt, or a pile of bananas - but wasn't sure it was real since it was so small. Someone I know had some antique vasoline glass and an old (sixties era) camera lens - and so I tested those things. Wow - both of those things sent the newer geiger counter into alarm, and the older geiger counter to full scale on the lowest range. I'm not suggesting that anybody try to obtain those kinds of things, as it seems they might be unhealthy with much exposure, but they test the counters well.
@johns77343 жыл бұрын
After I got a nuclear stress test, I amused my kids by lighting up my Geiger counter when I walked into the room. I got a letter from the lab stating that I had received the test in case I set off a Homeland Security radiation detector.
@jatpack33 жыл бұрын
Interesting video. Listening to the clicks as the counter detects the silent drum beat of ionization in the march to entropy.
@AdricM4 жыл бұрын
love your enthusiasm!
@ratedasmr78114 жыл бұрын
I love the sound of decaying atoms in the morning
@guytech73104 жыл бұрын
What you should consider trying is a scintillation detector which can also provide you the energy output. You need a MultiChannel Analyser which creates a plot of the counter energies. Something like a NaI:Th scintillation detector. the detector is coupled with a PhotoMultiplier tube. Another interesting experiment is to plot radiation over a period of a month. When it rains there is a spike of radiation and the rain causes Radon emissions to increase. You can also detect solar storms as it increases radiation. Detecting radiation is food is difficult because the water in food acts as a radiation shield for alpha and beta radiation. To measure food you need a HpGe Detector (High Performance Germanium) which is extremely sensitive, and the item to be tested needs to be in a heavily shield container (ie lead bricks) to shield out background radiation. If you want a food item to test, try No-Salt (Potassium Chloride) which is an active beta emitter (K40). I believe another item that is slightly radioactive is Kitty litter.
@Sharklops4 жыл бұрын
The Americium 241 in a smoke detector will really get that thing clicking
@jeddroston96904 жыл бұрын
correcto mundo!
@williamnoll79354 жыл бұрын
No it won't.
@nefariumxxx4 жыл бұрын
@@williamnoll7935 Yes it will. Her probe uses a thin mica end window which is indeed sensitive to the screaming alpha emitted from Am-241 test sources.
@williamnoll79354 жыл бұрын
@@nefariumxxx The mica is to block photons / light. The alpha remitted from the micro Curie of americium doesn't have the travel length, and is shielded by the device. I practice health physics.
@nefariumxxx4 жыл бұрын
@@williamnoll7935 Incorrect again. The mica end window material is very thin and used for it's ability to allow alpha to pass through and be counted. Do a simple google or youtube video search for "smoke detector geiger counter" etc. This is basic stuff to someone in the geiger counter enthusiast community like myself. The alpha emitted can travel about one inch through air, and also through that mica end window. You are confusing Aquadag which is the name of the material painted on mica in order to block photons. A pancake tube OR thin mica end window tube is designed to scan surfaces for alpha emitters / trace amounts of contamination.
@Yrouel864 жыл бұрын
If you want to log data with a computer you might take a look at GeigerLog sourceforge.net/projects/geigerlog/ it's in python and it does support plain audio input so it should work with your Geiger counter as well. This way you can take long measurements and save all the data
@mshotz13 жыл бұрын
The Counter is an Military AN/PDR-27
@spugintrntl3 жыл бұрын
Now I want a Geiger counter. If I ever get one I'll probably drive my wife nuts for about a week just going around testing everything in the house and proclaiming how many bananas.
@ethansav08923 жыл бұрын
Get a cdv-700 unless you're willing to spend like 600 dollars getting a one the cdv-700 is a good starting Geiger counter plus cheap digital Geiger counters suck
@jatpack33 жыл бұрын
@@ethansav0892 those old civil defense units need to be calibrated.
@ethansav08923 жыл бұрын
@@jatpack3 These aren't civil defense units those are cheaper government made this is a navy Geiger counter these where much better made
@SteverRob4 жыл бұрын
Interestingly, Ebay was flooded with the familiar yellow handheld radiation survey meters with the "CD" (Civil Defense) stickers on the side several years back. I'm guessing our local EOCs decided to finally let them go, 50 years after the Cold War. I bought one, and I must say, if you got any deflection of the needle, in any range, you were in trouble. If the highest range read anything, you were most likely looking at a mushroom cloud. I calibrated similar survey meters, Geiger counters, ion chambers and personal dosimeters, mostly for ND testing of welds (space program). We have a Cs-137 source up to 1R. I also cal'd radiation alarms that were installed above warehouse doors etc. that were pretty sensitive (nowhere near as sensitive as Bob Cunningham's post) and would set off an alarm/beacons at roughly 0.1mR/hr.
@ThinkingBetter2 жыл бұрын
I wonder what old electronic parts are radioactive. As a teen, I used to enjoy disassembling old tube TVs and other electronics and often took each component apart to find out what was inside without really worrying about potential toxins inside.
@ivuldivul3 жыл бұрын
5:40 Fran, you're slightly radiant :)
@BOLIVIAZO3 жыл бұрын
I don't know exatly how I came here, but this woman seems really nice and this seems like good content
@beanoneya2 ай бұрын
This was fun! Thanks!
@geraldcampbell68344 жыл бұрын
OMG Fran you are going to make paranoid people stop eating bananas! LOL!
@steviebboy694 жыл бұрын
That is funny, actually i have never eaten a Banana, never did even when I was a kid. I dont like the smell, I guess there is always some fruit or veg that some people wont eat.
@AlanCanon22224 жыл бұрын
Fran has an actual banana stand! Shades of "Arrested Development".
@spurgear44 жыл бұрын
I have some radium painted aircraft instruments from my old Aeronca in the workshop. I would be interested in how much is leaking out of them.
@Yaivenov3 жыл бұрын
WW2 radium illuminated instruments tended to be rather hot. Definitely get it checked so you know what precautions to take (storing it away from inhabited places or in an air tight case because of radon emission, limiting your time handling it for ionizing dose, and washing your hands immediately after for stray particulate that you might have picked up.)
@HIBAW3 жыл бұрын
You are such a trip fran :) I ordered some old cast iron from russia, and so I just had to use that as an excuse to get a geiger counter. My sister has a ton of old glass and rocks too. But I don't think I'll need an excuse to pull it out :) Always wanted one.
@ReverendFuzzy4 жыл бұрын
This is so cool... I was always ads for seeing geiger counter kits when I was a kid, but could never afford one... now that I can afford one, no more kits.
@mfbfreak4 жыл бұрын
There are dozens of kits, really. Check ebay :)
@ReverendFuzzy4 жыл бұрын
@@mfbfreak I've seen those... Nowhere near as accurate and robust as the old kits.
@mfbfreak4 жыл бұрын
@@ReverendFuzzy Well, you weren't suggesting they had to be super high quality things ;) If it's just a circuit board, you can make it as robust as you want.
@ReverendFuzzy4 жыл бұрын
@@mfbfreak If you'll read back, you'll note I said "when I was a kid"... back then, the kits were nothing but "high quality things". You assumed the rest.
@ethansav08923 жыл бұрын
I remember my first cdv-700 anton no.5
@stavinaircaeruleum22754 жыл бұрын
Hi Fran! :D Always love your work, your channel is so underrated. 💙
@accessblaster78764 жыл бұрын
How do you feel about dentist pointing the X-ray machine at our heads every 6 months? It's the only medical profession that takes an X-ray even though you show no symptoms. I also like the fact they cover my "junk" with a lead blanket then proceed to point the business end at my head....Love your content.
@simontay48514 жыл бұрын
My dentist doesn't cover mine with a blanket.
@williamnoll79354 жыл бұрын
Medical X-Rays have the greatest effect on radio-sensitive biologic tissues. So blood-forming bone marrow, digestive tissues, and testicles. Your head, with the exception of the eye lens, really doesn't care too much about X-Rays.
@accessblaster78764 жыл бұрын
@@williamnoll7935 The brain is the most important organ, I'll error on the side of caution.
@Chlorate2994 жыл бұрын
Geiger counters are very fun, mine is based on the SBM-20 tube so won't detect alpha emission but it's always amusing to find radioactive things where you don't expect them.
@mikek56334 жыл бұрын
I bough one of those hand held Chinese jobs and compared it to my old school unit, such as yours and believe it or not, the two units were very accurate with each other. The old one was recently certified and the Chinese one also claimed to be certified. Just so you know, for $100, it makes a nice portable "spot checker".
@russellharris50724 жыл бұрын
Have you tried camera lenses made in the 1960's?Major manufacturers back then had at least one lens with radioactive glass elements..........................
@williamnoll79354 жыл бұрын
It's not necessarily Uranium or Thorium. Look up 'decay chain' in Wikipedia. In the Arizona desert, we often see Pb-214, Bi-214, and AC-228 during temperature inversions on our gamma spec. As a Radiation Monitoring 'expert' I can tell you that you're NOT going to get a decent read on a hand held GM Tube or Scintillator. My 'trained' ear did not detect 'greater than background' when pointing at you or the banana. You are correct, both you and the banana contain K-40, but it takes a high-purity Gamma Spec instrument to detect it.
@MetamorphicWonders3 жыл бұрын
Try a smoke alarm, or the mantle from an old parrafin lamp. The mantle will jump off the scale. (the older mantles)
@danishnative95554 жыл бұрын
And Barium Oxide and Thorium impregnated Tungsten make great electron cathodes when heated. Oh yeah.
@pauldegroot24054 жыл бұрын
I used to have a geigermuller counter driven by mini baby tubes and a highvoltage transformer driven via a relay. The relay was very noisy so i replace that part with a two transistor multivib circuit. Loved it and background radiation was heavier on rainy days !
@nefariumxxx4 жыл бұрын
yep, see "radon washout".
@williamnoll79354 жыл бұрын
For other sources of natural radiaition that can be detected with hand-held instruments: pallet of water softener salt; 'stick' weld rods, Coleman Lantern mantles, 'old' orange Fiesta Ware plates
@mariomionskowski62234 жыл бұрын
I love this stuff of information!😊
@me2big4 жыл бұрын
Wasn't radioactive sand from Nevada used to mix the cement used in Philadelphia row houses in the 1940's - 1960's (the same sand that gave John Wayne and others the cancer they died from, while filming Howard Hughe's "The Mongolian" movie in Nevada, where A and H bombs were tested)?
@SurpriseFox4 жыл бұрын
Fran has a very unique voice. I'm sure it's been mentioned before, but I've never heard one like it.
@ethansav08923 жыл бұрын
She has a weird laugh to
@reptilez4 жыл бұрын
Pacific ocean fish sold to the public..... Fukushima..?
@tenlittleindians4 жыл бұрын
My father was a watchmaker. He had a small container of radioactive paint that was produced for touching up the hands and dials of old clocks and watches. The original women that painted the old dials and hands used to wet their paint brush bristles with saliva between their lips to put a point on their brushes during painting. They all died a horrible death from the radiation they ingested from this habit. The companies tried to screw over these workers and for the most part they were successful. Johnson and Johnson is now trying to screw over women getting cancer from baby powder. Another example of history repeating itself. Read up on those old dial painters for the details. My fathers gone and most of those old stories die with the people that used to keep them alive.
@nefariumxxx4 жыл бұрын
The Radium Girls are very well known by people into science. People often bring them up when I mention my geiger counter hobby. Lots of youtube videos and books on the topic. They won't be forgotten anytime soon by anyone with a decent IQ and an interest in science.
@SwingingChoke8 ай бұрын
I have this counter too! Along with many others…
@karlharvymarx26504 жыл бұрын
Fran, radiant as always.
@scottthomas62024 жыл бұрын
I had some carnival glass plates and coffee cup in high school that you could do radiographs with on Tri X film ( two week exposure time). I have an old Civil Defense dosimeter that's probably useless, but looks cool...
@anoopsahal12022 жыл бұрын
Try Brazil Nuts!
@paulied51504 жыл бұрын
Give that thing a little Pripyat action. 💥
@FlamingRobzilla4 жыл бұрын
I wonder what my tritium watch would sound like. For that matter, I wonder what wild tuna would sound like being caught in the waters off Japan. I think I have a can or two in the kitchen.
@avejst4 жыл бұрын
Interesting test👍😀 Thanks for sharing 👍😀
@guglielmochelazzi65564 жыл бұрын
hey wouldn't you like to have a walk outdoors and see what the geiger counter says? Maybe going to locations where you expect to have higher readings for one reason or another that'd be cool I think
@YaivenovАй бұрын
Is that GMC an AN/PDR-27S? Curious as I just acquired a few for me collection.
@RobertSeviour14 жыл бұрын
Eye fort a Geiger counter counted, seems it don't; it just says everyfink is 'just above background' - Diz A. Pointing.
@lastofthefinest Жыл бұрын
I just got my Geiger counter recently because I’ve been seeing strange indentations in my backyard. One place in particular is about 4 to 5 foot across and has bent the fence in my backyard. The Geiger counter reading on the spot is reading 112 V/m and saying it is a harmful level on the Geiger counter. From what I have read it’s extremely high. I also have a picture of the spot. I have also observed footprints leading away from the site and nobody has been here. Who should I contact about it? I am an online teacher and disabled veteran. I served as a military policeman and I’ve never seen anything like it.
@vk6xre4 жыл бұрын
So, what did I do last night? Programmed Node Red to talk to my WiZ lights... WHY? ...Because I don't own a Geiger counter! :)
@SeanBZA4 жыл бұрын
Try your thyroid, you probably have concentrated a bit of iodine in there as well, and it is also radioactive, and cesium is also chemically as reactive, and is also concentrated.
@nefariumxxx4 жыл бұрын
iodine 131 has a half-life of just 8 days... so... fizzles out quickly.
@totoff928 ай бұрын
when turning the geiger counter toward herself and saying within seconds that its slightly above background is completely false : you cant get a accurate measure this way. And a geiger counter isnt sensitive enough th show the difference if ever there is between a body and the background. A scintillation counter maybe could as it is way more sensitive.
@idio-syncrasy9 ай бұрын
I heard smoke alarms are radioactive. Are they something to avoid. For example don't sleep with one under your pillow?
@shadowmaster97804 жыл бұрын
Try pointing it at an ionizing smoke detector! Americium231!
@unixd0rk4 жыл бұрын
Thanks for sharing your banana detector! :D
@cdorcey17354 жыл бұрын
Many years ago, I helped judge a middle-school science fair. One student had a Geiger counter and a kit of radio-active sources, and he showed how different materials attenuated the radiation. Except... when he put some aluminum foil between the source and the counter, the count rate went UP! And it stayed up, after he removed the source. We never figured out why his aluminum food wrapping was radioactive. Is yours?
@sitwazhengАй бұрын
非常棒的推送🎉
@tihzho Жыл бұрын
4:29 If you want a sample of real lead glass a vintage neon beer sign at around 20 years old are all made with lead glass tubing. How do I know this? I'm a neon sign glass blower.
@samthenerf4 жыл бұрын
Ever heard of polonium anti static brushes?
@vittoriobacchiega41704 жыл бұрын
Try with camping gas lamp mesh
@sboileau24 жыл бұрын
What model detector is that ?
@jeddroston96904 жыл бұрын
that tube geiger counter is absolutely "scintillating"... pardon my pun....; ) ..almost as "scintillating" as NIST UTC shotwave station back i use to listen to in the 90s...lol
@nefariumxxx4 жыл бұрын
Fascinating perhaps, but not scintillating. Need a different probe for that.
@Allan_aka_RocKITEman4 жыл бұрын
@Fran Blanche >>> 'Where' did you purchase that geiger counter from?
@H3wastooshort3 жыл бұрын
You could swap the analog display for an arduino with a text only display counting the clicks
@Will_RM4 жыл бұрын
You're not a Geek you're just Unique!?!?!
@jlucasound4 жыл бұрын
I so want a Banana Split Atom. :-0
@ordinaryaverageguy764 жыл бұрын
That actually deserved more than just one Like.
@OldBenOne4 жыл бұрын
@@ordinaryaverageguy76 No, he should be kicked off the internet, or at least put on probation.
@davec61134 жыл бұрын
I thought about getting one to take to the supermarket to check out fruits and veg conning from California because, you know, Fukushima
@Wangavision4 жыл бұрын
And... now this song is stuck in my head.
@thulinp4 жыл бұрын
Nobody else mentioned: clay type clumping kitty litter is often weakly radioactive.
@blahboidblah4 жыл бұрын
Franana banana.
@CAOHnutrition4 жыл бұрын
Fun exercise - walk in a concrete parking garage with that thing!
@nomcc55223 жыл бұрын
What kind of counter are you using and where would one get one?
@tmwinkler4 жыл бұрын
Hi Fran, please give us a model number to search. I have a couple of old Victoreen models and a RADEX RD1503.
@nefariumxxx4 жыл бұрын
AN/PDR-27 (many variations).... however most of them will need refurbishment as the old electrolytic capacitors are drying out over time. So, warm up the soldering iron.