# Where to get H3 Tritium Vials?



## Peter Atwood (Oct 10, 2005)

Is there a ready source for these or is it the luck of the draw?


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## MorpheusT1 (Oct 10, 2005)

We have a couple of dealers here at CPF that is selling.

LITEmania
Merkava


I hope this helps,
Benny


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## InFlux (Oct 10, 2005)

Hi Peter, 

Please put me in line for whatever it is you're making 

(I'm only half kidding)


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## Peter Atwood (Oct 10, 2005)

Thanks Morpheus!

Hey Rob! Don't honestly know yet but something is brewing.....


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## orb (Oct 11, 2005)

Hello Peter,

Did you get a source for H3 Vials?

I stumbled across you site yesterday. Very nice work you do.
Was quite tempted by a few of your products.
It spured me of to thinking about a Raw size torch made from Demasteel.
Can you help with supply of material?
Also your colour anodizing, would you be interested in doing some ltd eddtion Raws Alu & Ti?

Thanks
Rob


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## Grox (Oct 11, 2005)

I would be extraordinarily interested in the collaboration. Peter, I think that your prybaby and your knives are awesome. I have always admired orb's creativity and stylish design. Sign me up! I'll take it!


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## mobile1 (Oct 20, 2005)

The original manufacturer is located in Switzerland. But import restrictions and paperwork is pretty insane so you wanna buy them preferably here - so you don't have to go through all that.


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## swissbianco (Oct 23, 2005)

according the bad swiss law here they can only sell watches and gunsights. all others is to mutch!! 

have had once the license to use them but as they kindly asked for my pee i send them back!! they wanna pee from anyone that works with tritium for test the radioaktivity. insane persons. now i do that all outside swiss for sure.


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## Peter Atwood (Oct 23, 2005)

I managed to find some...now to figure out where to put these little buggers.


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## gadget_lover (Oct 23, 2005)

swissbianco said:


> according the bad swiss law here they can only sell watches and gunsights. all others is to mutch!!
> 
> have had once the license to use them but as they kindly asked for my pee i send them back!! they wanna pee from anyone that works with tritium for test the radioaktivity. insane persons. now i do that all outside swiss for sure.



If you don't have the proper equipment for monitoring radiation exposure, you might end up contaminated and not know it. It sounds like the government wants to make sure you are properly protecting yourself. That's not too insane.

Daniel


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## [email protected] (Oct 23, 2005)

I never needed to get tested for my licence...  :toilet: :green: 
Probably because the beta radiation is so weak it cannot penetrate the skin. :thinking:


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## gadget_lover (Oct 23, 2005)

From the site...
http://www.unh.edu/ehs/radsafety/Fact_Sheets/H3.html



> There is minimal external hazard with 3H, i.e. the vial containing the 3H provides sufficient shielding from the beta particles. If the skin is contaminated with 3H, the betas will not be able to penetrate through the dead layer of skin. However, if 3H is absorbed into the body via ingestion or cuts in the skin, it will cause a radiation dose.



Its seems like a minor risk for consumers, but people handling large quantities may be at risk. Because it's the internal contamination that matters, "Film badges and dosimeter rings are not appropriate for monitoring 3H exposure."

Daniel


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## swissbianco (Nov 7, 2005)

first we think its dangerous. dont touch it and went stright to let it measure. and i talking not only from watches or glowrings. the mapreader and torch etc etc with huge tritium blocks inside. the measurement tells not more than standart radioactivity that is normal here...

so dont worry, we are safe and thinking first and not like the insane bureocratics...i love my life&dont wanna pass away!


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## gadget_lover (Nov 7, 2005)

swissbianco said:


> first we think its dangerous. dont touch it and went stright to let it measure. and i talking not only from watches or glowrings. the mapreader and torch etc etc with huge tritium blocks inside. the measurement tells not more than standart radioactivity that is normal here...
> 
> so dont worry, we are safe and thinking first and not like the insane bureocratics...i love my life&dont wanna pass away!




If you read the link I posted, the danger is from inhaling it when the vials break or from getting it on your skin. They specifically say a gieger counter will not detect the radiation.

So keep the room well vetilated and clear out quickly when one does break and you should be OK.

Or so it seems to say.


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## swissbianco (Nov 9, 2005)

yes i now that. would mount them only outside for that reason. you should see the factory floor by the swiss manufacturer. if the light is out you see it glow all over the floor from dropped trasers. really!

on time they sold big chunks of trasers for an airport start/landing road inside the rain forrest cause they need no power source. they got stolen by natives really quick. i only hope they dont split what they got as this is usual what happens by sutch groups. imagen theyr faces as the light disapears & thake an deep breath hahaha.


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## xochi (Nov 9, 2005)

I'm not positive about this but after seeing what happens to trit vials when a very bright light is shined on them , I'm inclined to believe that either they are using the poorly glowing zinc based substance as a phosphor or they are using something else entirely. They are certainly not using the good strontium stuff.

I believe that if they just switched to strontium alluminate as a phosphor, all of the trit vials and watches would be much more impressive. Just a guess though.


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## [email protected] (Nov 10, 2005)

I'm not sure about that xochi, remember the duration of the afterglow is a non issue since it is exited constantly.


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## vaism (Nov 10, 2005)

swissbianco said:


> the factory floor by the swiss manufacturer. if the light is out you see it glow all over the floor from dropped trasers. really!


 
But if the vial breaks the Tritium gas escapes and how can the factory floor be glowing then unless it's full of tritium gas trapped in the factory.. Which is impossible for ppl to work there then.. :huh2:


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## [email protected] (Nov 10, 2005)

My guess is the phosphorous coating used is behaving like glowpowder and is charged by normal lighting as well. :thinking:


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## pbarrette (Nov 10, 2005)

Or..

It's possible that a small amount of the tritium has formed chemical bonds with the phosphor material. In that case, some of the tritium would be embedded in the phosphor itself and provide enough beta particles to provide a weak glow.

pb


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## xochi (Nov 10, 2005)

[email protected] said:


> I'm not sure about that xochi, remember the duration of the afterglow is a non issue since it is exited constantly.



In my experience, if the substance is zinc sulfide (IIRC), then replaceing it with strontium may increase the brightness as much as ten times. What I saw when I shined a light on it was a momentary increase in brightness that quickly dissappeared.


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## pbarrette (Nov 11, 2005)

Hi xochi,

A while back (can't remember the date on the paper), MB Microtech successfully petitioned the US government to change the radiological hazard laws regarding small, tritium based, radioluminescent glass vials for use in self contained devices like watches. Previously, the law was such that any tritium based light source was required to pass a "bend" test. That test was configured such that the light source must be able to survive a certain degree of bending without releasing any tritium.

Obviously, glass vials could not pass the bend test. But MB Microtech convinced the US government that they had improved the tritium light source to such a degree that they were able to use substantially less tritium to output the same amount of light as the older technology. Thus, the new technology used so little tritium that any breakage of the vial would produce a negligable heath threat even if the entire contents of the vial were ingested.

This "new technology" mentioned, suggests to me that the phosphor used in the vials we have today are about as good as they are going to get with current technology. It also tells me that if you want to make the vials of today brighter, you would need to increase the amount of tritium to levels which would make the vials wholly illegal for import and export in many countries.

pb


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## xochi (Nov 11, 2005)

I wouldn't assume that they came up with a better glowing phosphor. They may have come up with clearer glass, a less light obstructing means of adhesing the phosphor to the glass (clearer "glue"), a means of making smaller tubes with larger inner diameters (thinner glass), a phosphor with greater suface area, more pure tritium and likely many other ways that would allow the use of less tritium. 

The phosphor used may not be zinc at all but something else. It clearly isn't strontium aluminate. Does anyone know if tritium will make strontium glow?


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## swissbianco (Nov 11, 2005)

mb microtec mr bänziger invented sompthing and delivers some armys with theyr glow whatever products. they have also develope an non radioactive glower but that dont glow mutch on my tests...

what i meant is they drop quite some of that tiny traser glass capsules and if you are there and no light, you see it glow all over the floor...from time to time they clean them off.

soon i will do some swiss army knife scales with tritium.


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