Wow, great job! That is a nice old compass, even if the Tritium has decayed away. It still works great as a compass! I'd love to find one of these old ones, new are too expensive.
@Sturgeonstairway8 жыл бұрын
seattwa Hate to break it to you guys, but that's depleted radium paint (the off-orange stuff used to paint the cardinal points) he's rubbing all over his hands! Saw the back of the case which does say "contains radioactive H3," but tritium is a gas and would not be stable in a paint form. Look at pics of any of the M-1950 compasses made after the Vietnam war and you will see that the tritium gas is contained in little glass vials along with the phosphorescent reactant. Either someone was fooling with this compass and replaced parts with Korean war era stuff, or it might have been a transition model (looks like the bottom of the card capsule may have had a tritium vial attached at one point).
@allansmith61407 жыл бұрын
There is indeed such a thing as tritium paste, it was generally phased out by the late 90's but it is still in use as is another radioactive substance - promethium. This is generally not known. It's easy to tell a tritium paste M-1950 compass from a tritium vial one, the vial one will have the thin luminous sighting dots on the inside of the cover whilst the tritium paste models will have those grooves filled with paste. Tritium paste only has a slight glow but can be activated by a light source to shine brighter just like luminous paint. It was extensively used in watches after radium was phased out. I have several older USGI tritium compasses and have tested for radioactivity on them with a geiger counter and found none but you should certainly treat it as a toxic substance, though its not comparable to radium in toxidity. It is to be noted that radium was banned in watches in 1968 and early USGI compasses can contain radium paint. Be weary of fiddling with any old USGI compass that does not have the radiation warning on it unless you know what you are doing as it is most likely a radium model. So SavageJim01... you will most likely live lol.
@dougelick83977 жыл бұрын
Tritium is a gas, it must be contained in vials. Tritium = Hydrogen 3. That warning on the back makes no sense - 75 micro Curies is too high for H3 to produce in the quantities we're looking at here, but no problem for Radium. If you look up that A.E.C. license #, you'll get a bunch of hits saying that's an early 60's compass - well within the range of when they were still using Radium. 75 microCuries is WAY more than allowed for normal, unlicensed (exempt) civilian possession, which is why that license stamp is on the back. 1 mCi of Ra-226 is the max for timepieces made before 2007. www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/cfr/part030/part030-0015.html A.E.C = Atomic Energy Commission, the predecessor to the N.R.C.(the Nuclear Regulatory Commission took over in 1974) That paint looks like radium paint. Be EXTREMELY careful. The radiation itself isn't much of a problem as long as there's a glass layer between you and the paint (and you don't sleep with the compass), but if it flakes off and gets into your lungs or body in general it's quite dangerous. Find someone with a geiger counter. Tritium in vials / behind glass is far too weak to be detected by anything but a very sensitive instrument. Radium on the other hand is easy as pie.
@xusmico1874 жыл бұрын
DOD usually requires rad disposal. Some that people kept get out
@AndyOutdoorsman2 жыл бұрын
I have a 1989 one , it doesn’t have any warnings on the back not to open , does this mean it’s safe to open, and if not why would it not have the warning on it, thanks
@xusmico1874 жыл бұрын
common problems, dry card and water between compass glass and outer bezel glass. dust and dirt gets in and fogs. lead #2 pencil to lube pivot. love mine but when replacing, i go with phosphorous v tritium. just because phosphorous can recharge w/ light and last years longer compared to tritium, when tritium is dead it is dead
@고철호-t1f3 жыл бұрын
Nice review. Much helful .
@agarazvi91773 жыл бұрын
Sir no
@0utrider43A3 жыл бұрын
For any potential Lensatic Compass repair technician read the back of new compasses it’s marked DO NOT OPEN.
@christophers.85532 жыл бұрын
They don't want you to break out and eat the Tritium. I've been told that some soldiers did this in an attempt to get sent home from Vietnam (the older compasses used Radium and that's a lot more dangerous due to the half-life). The Tritium gas is contained in small glass capsules. (1) Don't eat them, (2)The tririum is basically all gone now anyway, decayed to helium (3) you can go online now and buy a key fob with 500x the tritium this ever had.