# Tritium Powered Lights



## x-ray (Sep 16, 2002)

Anyone seen/used one of these tritium powered personal illuminators:







Would be interested to know just how bright they are.

Also found this map reading light (looks useful)






The downside is I can't seem to find anywhere that sells to the general public, most places will only sell to military,law enforcement or other emergency services.


----------



## sunspot (Sep 16, 2002)

I have not seen those yet. Are they Traser? Traser has a variable Tridium light for about $165USD. Your pic gives me an idea (Oh-oh). Take some tubes fron Glowrings and mount them in a tube that has a side window.


----------



## [email protected] (Sep 16, 2002)

If I remember correctly, Graham was working on something like that...




Maybe he has some info on this.


----------



## x-ray (Sep 16, 2002)

> Originally posted by sunspot:
> *I have not seen those yet. Are they Traser?*


<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">No they're not Traser, I found them on a US site called Ameriglo, You can find them in the tactical devices section


----------



## James S (Sep 16, 2002)

I did some searching not long ago on the NRA website to find out just how hard it would be to distribute something like this and it didn't sound that difficult at all. You have to fill out some paperwork about your construction techniques and tell them what the maximum exposure would be if the case was breached. They are certainly not illegal, the company just has to be willing to do some paper work. Unless they actually do contain an unusually large amount of tritium in them, in which case I don't want one anyway. 

Gun sites, tritium light sources, and tritium watch faces are all regulated the same way as long as they contain less than a certain amount of the stuff. You can read the post at http://www.candlepowerforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=11;t=000059

So it seems to me that they just haven't figured out how to do the import paperwork yet. Personally I think it would definitely be worth their while as I would buy several and I know a lot of other people would too!


----------



## James S (Sep 16, 2002)

Actually, it appears I am wrong axolotls adds an entry at the end of that thread saying that the traser products contain as much as 400 millicuries which is info I wasn't able to find on their website. So that puts them about 4 times over the easy distribution license.

Oh Well


----------



## Streak (Sep 16, 2002)

We have factory here in South Africa that manufactures products using GTLS (gaseous trirtium light sources). These include exit, signs, light switch finders, special forces flashlight and many others.
The gas is sealed in a pyrex glass vial which is lined with phosphorous, the particles from the gas excite the phosphorous causing it to glow much the same as a mini fluorescent light tube.

I have half looked into getting some finished product organised for CPF members but there seems to be a lot of red tape.

How much interest is there really?


----------



## sunspot (Sep 16, 2002)

Here is more lights. roithner 
I do have an intrest in these.


----------



## Wingerr (Sep 16, 2002)

> Originally posted by Streak:
> *How much interest is there really?*


<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">My guess? Huge-


----------



## dilettante (Sep 16, 2002)

According to Ameriglo's "About Us" page, "The hand held Tactical Devices were originally constructed by SRB Technologies in the UK." A quick Google search revealed that SRB Technologies is Betalight (I knew I'd seen the stuff before). It's the same GTLS technology as Traser, but Traser products are manufactured by a Swiss company (See http://www.mbmicrotec.com/contact.htm). 

I think there are some regulatory and/or licensing issues that are _supposed to_ prevent foreign distributors from selling this stuff in the US (probably to protect Ameriglos interests as the US distributor), but I bet you could get it from a UK or European site cheaper. 

I think a map reader would be great. The illuminator would be cool for military/survival scenarios where you can't count on battery resupply, but normally, I'd keep my ARC AAA.


----------



## sunspot (Sep 16, 2002)

I found another. This one looks a bit smaller. edirectory.uk


----------



## Quickbeam (Sep 16, 2002)

More discussion on this topic... We tried to get some sources from Betalight, but it fell through.

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=002187;p=4#000124


----------



## Streak (Sep 16, 2002)

OK so there seesm to be enough interest to make some further investigation.
I will contact the factory in the morning. I suspect there will be 2 options:-
1. purchase some of their off the shelf stuff and find a way for you guys to get hold of it with no licensing.
2. identify the products of interest and make the necessary applications for licensing of those products. For consumers, one can not licence the technology but rather the finished product.

The factory did manufacture GTLS vials for the manufacture of gun sites for an American company so we know that that product is licensed, not sure about the rest which would contain more Tritium.

Watch this space for further information.


----------



## sunspot (Sep 16, 2002)

Streak. Is the factory name Ramrod Manufacturing?


----------



## Streak (Sep 16, 2002)

Hi Sunspot.
No it is not Ramrod Manufacturing. However I do know the company and have dealt with them before. How do you know them down in Alabama?

(By the way I was on Lake Eufaula and Seminole last year, popped across into Al for a meal).


----------



## NamTinker (Sep 17, 2002)

Hi Streak
I am using some of their products already. Some for use as markers on control points for night navigation, some for personel markers on backpacks, other to mark the rear of my Arc LS. (So I ALWAYS know where it is lying at night...) Fast efficient service. I was also told they can manufacture according to the buyer's specs. So, lots of scope there.


----------



## x-ray (Sep 17, 2002)

Would a fairly "large" vile of tritium put out enough brightness to generate any current if it was wrapped in some kind of photoelectric cell ?

Yes I'm thinking 10 year, constant power battery - probably too good to be true


----------



## Joshua (Sep 17, 2002)

How long is the Tritiam glow in these glass containers? If the glow lasted about 60 years or so, I think one of the larger marble sized ones (2 inch spheres) would be cool to make into a pendent and pass down to your children. "Look jr, this light was glowing before you were born!" Yeah but they would probably fall and crack before then. : )


----------



## x-ray (Sep 17, 2002)

> Originally posted by Joshua:
> *How long is the Tritiam glow in these glass containers?*


<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Quote from Traser website _ "They remain fail-safe and maintenance free and have a useful life in excess of 10-20 years" _


----------



## sunspot (Sep 17, 2002)

Quote by Streak.:


> How do you know them down in Alabama?


<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Ah, the power of the Internet. They are listed as a Traser affiliate.
BTW, the variable betelight is now hidden in Trasers web site. It is under military and needs a password to access.


----------



## Harrkev (Sep 17, 2002)

If the licensing is based on the *total* amount of radioactive material in the products, there may be an easy way to sell these things.

Manufacture small glow tubes, each one of which falls under the limit. Each tube could be in a tiny plastic holder.

Then, sell the map-reading magnifying glass with no radioactive material at all. Then, you buy 5 or 6 glow tubes, and snap them in. Same results, but less paperwork.


----------



## Albany Tom (Sep 17, 2002)

> Originally posted by x-ray:
> *Would a fairly "large" vile of tritium put out enough brightness to generate any current if it was wrapped in some kind of photoelectric cell ?
> 
> Yes I'm thinking 10 year, constant power battery - probably too good to be true
> ...


<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I don't know, but I do know something like that has been done. Pretty sure this is sort of the system of nuclear powered satalites, except with a much nastier radioactive source. (Plutonium?) Think a 1,000,000 year constant power battery...



(Reality - more likely until the photocells burn out. Electronics don't do well in space...)


----------



## Light Year (Sep 17, 2002)

> Originally posted by x-ray:
> *Would a fairly "large" vile of tritium put out enough brightness to generate any current if it was wrapped in some kind of photoelectric cell ?
> 
> Yes I'm thinking 10 year, constant power battery - probably too good to be true
> ...


<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">This sounds logical, anyone know if it is viable ?


----------



## Badbeams3 (Sep 17, 2002)

Theres a fellow selling glow rings for 10 bucks each in the dealers area. Tempting. I have 2...my wife and my mom loove these things. Finding keys in a purse has never been so easy...or so they say.

As far as generating power from a solar cell with these things...I don`t know...you may have better luck pointing you cell at the moon.

Ken


----------



## Max (Sep 18, 2002)

> Originally posted by x-ray:
> *Would a fairly "large" vile of tritium put out enough brightness to generate any current if it was wrapped in some kind of photoelectric cell ?
> 
> Yes I'm thinking 10 year, constant power battery - probably too good to be true
> ...


<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">A couple of things:

Tritium's half life is about 12 years, I think, so that is not a constant power battery. It will follow a curve like this one:





I looked up some info about one of those self-luminous exit signs, and they say that their signs are designed to meet National Fire Protection Associations minimum luminance requirement of 0.06 footlamberts (0.21 cd/sq m) at the end of their 10, 12, 15, or 20 year intended lifetimes. So, let's say that a brand new one puts out about 3 times the minimum required light. That ain't much.

Tritium is a beta emitter. That means it shoots out electrons when it decays. The traser makes light by capturing those electrons and emitting photons. A solar cell makes electricity by capturing photons to move electrons around. There's no way that's an efficient process. If you wanted to really make a voltage source powered by tritium, I would think that you would want to just capture those beta particles directly.


----------



## Max (Sep 18, 2002)

> Originally posted by Albany Tom:
> *I don't know, but I do know something like that has been done. Pretty sure this is sort of the system of nuclear powered satalites, except with a much nastier radioactive source. (Plutonium?) Think a 1,000,000 year constant power battery...
> 
> 
> ...


<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Read here: http://faculty.erau.edu/ericksol/courses/sp300/ch8/elect_ch8.html 

Apparently the best radioactive materials to use for space probes have half-lives in the 10-100 years range, like plutonium 238 with a half-life of around 88 years.


----------



## Roy (Sep 18, 2002)

The nuclear power supplies you're thinking of are called Thermal Isotope Generators. They us the decay heat of large quanities of high energy radioactive material. They use thermocouples to convert the heat into electricity.


----------



## Streak (Sep 18, 2002)

Sunspot.
Ramrod are the distributors of Traser (Luminox) wtaches for South Africa, hence their listing on the site.


----------

