10 dangerous things in Victorian/Edwardian homes

[launderess]

It All Comes Down To Half Life

Which makes you wonder about how many properties have the remains of radioactive rodents (poisoned by thallium rodenticides) littered about.

 

[travis]

Something is going to kill us all

 

[sudsmaster]

Not to mention the radioactive water crocks with a spigot at the bottom that were popular at the turn of the century through the 1920's.

I worked beside in a nuclear medicine lab in the 1970's. One day I walked into that lab and my attention was directed to an old ceramic crock. It was an attractive piece with nice blue glazed lettering heralding the radioactive contents. One of the lab techs held up a geiger counter to it and it went off scale. I was duly entertained but gave the thing a wide berth.

About five years later I was backpacking around Guatemala and staying at one of the low cost hostels in Panajachel. I filled my canteen from a water crock in the "kitchen" area. The next day another camper directed my attention to the lettering on the side of it, which I hadn't noticed. It was one of those quack radioactive crocks!

In my extremely limited Spanish, I tried to tell the owner (a nice middle aged woman) that this thing was VERY dangerous and she should get rid of it immediately. All I got in return was a look of disbelief and denial. After that I drank the tap water (from the lake) which I boiled on my portable stove. That damn crock is probably still there, though.

Here's a fun video of Victorian/Edwardian radioactive quackery:

 

[logixx]

BBC documentary

"Loved" the past about that perm machine that not only burnt the hair off but was also wrapped in asbestos! *face palm x2* Now excuse me, while I'm gonna smear some toxic waste on my face for a complexion that truly radiates beauty... I wonder, though, what this documentary would be like in a hundred years from now.

 

[tolivac]

Dave-old "tek" scope-or HP ones-esp the tubed models with the "plug ins" for various functions.Remember them-usually found them at TV stations in the studios or the transmitter sites.And HP Spectrum analyzers-were often built into the transmitter-used them for tuning the visual stages.I collect a lot of "stuff" as well-but don't have any radium clocks or dials.Aware of their hazards-found it on a website about clock collecting.Tritium is also used in some gunsights and scopes-for use a night or with low contrast targets.And some of the tubes--PDM modulators in AM or SW broadcast transmitters operate at voltages they can produce X-rays.Klystron and klystrode tbes in TV transmitters-analog or digital-same thing.There are warnings on the X-ray sheilding panels-often interlocked-not to run the transmitter with them removed.I stay away from the modulator cabinet of one of the tranmsitters here when its on-and warn others to stay away from it.

 

[davey7]

University of Chicago Rodents

"Which makes you wonder about how many properties have the remains of radioactive rodents (poisoned by thallium rodenticides) littered about."

-Launderess

At the University of Chicago, where the original Enrico Fermi experiments were done, there steam tunnels with, shock shock & shock of shocks, rodents in them. I recall a story told by consulting engineers doing work for the new dormitories which are on part of the old Stagg Field (where the experiments took place, under the bleachers) were checking on radiation and found it in spades, moving around no less.

It was the rats.

They were like, oh, we can go in and get rid of them and the University was like NO WAY! They were using them as research, lab rats, on radiation half life/longevity in an animal population and were actually quite valuable. So the half life isn't just in corpses/remains but also in their living offspring!