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FrozenGate by Avery

My Review of the Green Tritium Glowing Key Ring from DX

Thanks for sharing! Man I would totally be up for one of those big ones...

:drool:

-Chris
 





Almost 8 months later, and it's STILL glowing. I have it on my keys and play with it everyday. I was just looking at it just now and I thought of this thread. Haha!

-Tony
 
wow these things are really cool! I think I'll order one nice orange keychain from that guy in CPF.
 
you can do all the glowmods you want to your flashlights, but if it's been dark for more than 24 hours, only thing you'll see is the tritium marker. I've got an ice-blue trit in the lanyard hole of an UF A10 and in a slot on my Solarforce L2. I used Norland Optical Adhesive #61 in both.

If you are doing trit mods to flashlights and such, might as well go all out and get some glow powder too. I've tried glowinc's V10 and it's very bright. Just mixed it with some clear nail polish.

405nm does amazing things with glow powders :na:

There's just something to be said for tritium, though. Sure, glow V10 is like, way brighter, but tritium lasts.
 
Xplorer877 said:
Ever since I've stumbled upon this, while perusing all of DX's gadgets and deals, I've wanted it.

DealExtreme: $36.77 Large 1.5-inch Tritium Glowring Keychain (10-Year Green Glow)

After finally deciding to buy one, because $40 is kinda steep for just a key chain, I'm glad I did. When you consider and appreciate what it is, it is truly unique.

The fact that it glows is not whats impressive, it's how it glows.

It's not electricity, or glow in the dark, or incandescent, or bio luminescent, it's not even a chemical reaction...

It's radioluminescence!


The tiny vial of Tritium, the same stuff Dr. Octavius used to power his fusion reactor in Spider Man 2 (haha), really does glow quite well! The first question everyone had is "how bright is it". Well considering it doesn't run on batteries and will last over 10 years, it glows pretty bright. Actually I wasn't expecting it to be this bright. It's hard to explain how bright it glows because "perceived" brightness depends on so many things.

When I first unpackaged it I was in a semi lit room and right away I could tell it was emitting it's own light. You can always tell when something is glowing, however faint. It just didn't seem to only reflect ambient light, you could tell that there was a bit more coming from it. Then I cupped it in my hands and, YUP, it is definitely glowing! I could see the green glow emanate from the vial and also the glow reflecting off my fingers. In the dark it best resembles a freshly charged glow in the dark button on a TV remote control in intensity and in color. The color is not monochromatic like a laser, but I can say that it is more of a yellowish green than 532nm light. If your eyes are fully accustomed to the dark then you'd be able to read by the light and it's glare can be seen across the room. I have it sitting on my desk and it is brighter than all the faint LEDs on my various electronic devices. You know what I'm talking about? The green LEDs on my cable box and on my MBP charger, the red LEDs on my Wii and TV... they're all not as bright.

Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen. The nucleus of each atom contains 1 proton and 2 neutrons, and normal hydrogen only contains a single proton. So it's that abnormal number of neutrons that makes it radioactive. The nuclei are unstable and break down by beta decay emitting electrons in the process. Those electrons hit the phosphorescent coating in the vial and emit a green glow just like a glow in the dark substance. The half life of tritium is about 12 years, so in that time the glow will diminish by half.

It's not dangerous either. Well, at least if you don't crack it open and breath the gas. The beta particles don't have enough energy to penetrate the plastic vial. The radiation can only be detected by VERY sensitive equipment. It'll never register on a Geiger Counter.

Taking pictures of it just doesn't do it justice, and my camera sucks. So I'll let you check out the pics on DX's website. But just know that It is brighter than it appears.

10/10 buy it!

BTY the metal ring it comes with is great too. It feels very sturdy but mine was silver not black.

-Tony
Click to expand...

After you're done with H3, then I'll show you some Am241 (alpha particle emmitter). That little vial with give you about 12.32 years of life. After that it reaches half life and becomes He3, a non-radioactive isotope of Helium.
 
Pontiacg5 said:
Would it be possible to pick that plastic piece out of the bottom and remove the vial?
Click to expand...

I got the cheap $9 pink tritium one and the vial can be taken out.
I broke the bottom of it with some pliers and it dropped right out.
 
Be very careful with the vial if it does come out. If you break it and breath the gas you could get very sick. Technically the selling of tritium in the US is illegal but it's not well enforced, just like importing lasers isn't enforced.:whistle:

However, the biological half-life of Tritium is like 12 days. I've read conflicting arguments about its hazardousness.

-Tony
 
Wut? That vial is TEENY. The volume of gas is therefore TEENY. Also, the gas would dissipate and you would never breathe more than 1% of it (most of which would be exhaled immediately) unless you were trying.

I'd be more worried about a banana.
 
btw, check out the DIY with O-like crystals sticky by mausweisel (sp)

He even uses a sample of Am241. (btw, AM241 contained in most smoke detectors)
 
I wouldn't call it bright by any means.
But it all depends on your eyes. If you're fully accustomed to the darkness You'll see the glare from the light all the way from across the room. You may be able to read by it, but I can't. My eyes are bad from years of playing with lasers, flashlights, and Teslacoils. :D

-Tony
 
Without letting 10 minutes for adjusting to darkness, I can see the blue glow from my tritium on the wall from a max distance of about 2 to 3 inches. Now, I have a blue tritium vial, which is about 40% of the brightness of a green. Just giving my perception.
 
Hello

Do not open the a box of dangerous radioactive tritium !!!

10 year Light long life :D

My
1X 200mW 532nm Laser 303 Pointer Good :)
1X 200mW 660nm Laser DX Pointer Good :)
1X 5mW 405nm Laser Pointer Dead :cryyy:
 
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