Traser Glowrings

Joined
Apr 7, 2002
Messages
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I received two green glowrings recently. Amazingly bright. I have attached one to my Arc AAA.
Are these things safe enough to wear around your neck? It glows like something that is the result of a nuclear accident! I had my Arc AAA on my night-stand but had to move it because the glowring was giving me the creeps. I might have to get some more!!

glowring%20big.jpg
 
Tritium is a beta emitter and does not emit alpha or gamma, and since beta radiation cannot penetrate the glass capsule the tritium is in, such things as Glow Rings and tritium gunsights do not emit any radiation at all (except light).

The rest of this post merely explains that and if you're not interested in nuclear physics you can skip it.
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When radioactivity was first discovered nobody knew what the three kinds of radiation emitted by radium were, so they named them alpha, beta, and gamma radiation to keep them straight. Those names are still used even though we know what they are now....

An alpha ray is a helium4 nucleus -- two protons and two neutrons; a beta ray is an electron, and gamma is electromagnetic radiation of higher frequency and shorter wavelength than x-rays.

Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen, hydrogen3, with one proton and two neutrons. It beta decays to helium3 -- one of the neutrons emits an electron and a neutrino, leaving a proton, and we're left with two protons and one neutron. The neutrino goes off harmlessly into space. The electron strikes a material lining the capsule which responds by emitting light.

Although it's moving at high velocity a beta ray is only an electron, a particle of little mass which because of its charge interacts strongly with the electron shell of any atom in its path. A beta ray cannot penetrate a sheet of paper, or the outermost layer of your skin, or the plastic capsule tritium is enclosed in to make a Glow Ring. Thus, although there is radioactive material inside a Glow Ring, it does not emit any radiation as long as the capsule is intact. Even if the capsule breaks it won't do you any harm.

By the way, charge is conserved. You can think of a neutron as a proton and an electron stuck together by magnetic attraction. It takes energy to make them stick together, and when they are divorced by beta decay that energy is released in a neutrino and in the kinetic energy of the electron (its velocity). We're left with a helium3 atom which still has only one electron (since it was only recently a hydrogen atom) so it has a net charge of +1 -- but we're also have an electron speeding off, which has a charge of -1, so electical charge is conserved, and since the electron cannot leave the capsule, the net charge of the capsule remains neutral. The free electrons eventually join up with the helium3 ions to form neutral atoms.

I hope I haven't bored you too much. The point is Glow Rings are perfectly harmless and you can even carry them around in your underwear if you want with no fear of having children with three heads.
 
While they are cool in the dark, they look like plain old plastic blobs in daylight. Are the green ones much brighter?

jmx
 
jmxcpter,

I have a few in each color, and green seems to be the brightest, although it also looks like a clear tube in moderately strong light.
 
Have access to a Geiger counter? Physics lab?

I've been told that like the post says, that they're safe. Been carrying one in each front pocket for a couple years. No effects.
(of course that couple explain the rash and skin loss...just kidding)

Yes, they are bright as heck, and do take some getting used to when they're on the dresser or side table.

Just act like Homer..... DOH!!
 
If you are looking for a source for Glowrings in the U.S., check out SurvivalKeychain.com. They have excellent and fast service.

Note: I do not have any relationship with SurvivalKeychain.com. I am just a satisfied customer.
 
I ordered a Glowring from SurvivalKeychain.com. It is really cool because it produces an eerie, soft, purple glow. I attached the Glowring to my keys so I can find them in the dark. I plan to buy some more to give as gifts and to attach to my Princeton Tec Attitude that I keep on my night stand. :)
 
I ordered 100 Glowrings a while back (60 green & 10 of each other colour) The green are the brightest but I love the purple colour the best. It looks stranger then "radioactive goo" green that we see all over the place.

I've been wearing a green Glowring on a neck lanyard for about a year now and both my hearts are good and strong.

Yellow isn't a popular colour I've found. Quite dim which is a shame...

A friend broke the light blue I gave her "Alastair, that radioactive keyring you gave me that was meant to last ten years has gone out."
So I replaced it from one of my stash and Traser was great to send me three glowrings which is great because I wasn't even after free replacements for the broken one!

I love Glowrings!

Al :D
 
Cougar,

Thanks for the great info. I just got some glowrings and was wondering if I might be doing any damage by keeping them on my keyring in my pants pocket. Now I know and understand why I should not worry. I may have to get a traser watch now that I know prolonged exposure on my wrist will have no ill effects.

Brett
 
There was a BF member selling these glowrings for his scout troop I think. I don't rember the name but I think he was selling them cheaper than the 10 or so dollars on survivalkeychain.com. Perhaps he or someone who knows who I'm talking about will find this and post some info on how to get them from him.

Ryan
 
From the Department of Energy homepage:
With one unimportant exception, tritium is the weakest beta emitter known. The range of the most energetic tritium beta particles is only about 5 mm in air or 0.005 mm in water or soft tissue. This range makes it a nonhazard outside the body, but presents a detection problem. Where other radioisotopes can be detected by virtue of their penetrating radiation, tritium has to be introduced directly inside the detector or counter to be measured.
-----

Alpha particles have the weakest penetration power, out of all the radioactive particles. This is because they are actually a helium nucleus, bigger than the other kinds of particles.
 
Hi guys,

I'm the "guy" from the Dutch Scout troop that sometimes sells extra Glowrings as a fundraiser.

At the moment we found a US friend who will receive money orders for us so paying the Glowrings has become very easy and safe for both parties involved.
When we have extra Glowrings we sell them for a very acceptable price considering it's including priority airmail and we still ask for payment after receiving them.

Best Scouting wishes from Holland,

Bagheera

http://home.wanadoo.nl/fam.henskens
 
If it wasn't so easy for me to get hold of them for myself, I would also be buying (helping support) Bagheera's Scouts.

Regards,

Al
 
I can understand some of the appeal, but my keyring is big enough as is. They need to make them in a more useful shape, maybe a carabiner that all the keys clip into. That would supply enough rigid housing for the glowing media and still supply plenty of visible space for the glow.

Phil
 
That strikes me as a great idea. I'm always trying to minimize the junk on my keyring and in my pockets....

Another thing I've been thinking about is trying to get hold of some superluminova paint and painting various things with it. That wouldn't work very well for things you keep in your pocket, though; it has to be exposed to light to charge up. Tritium paint is not available to the public.

There's some adhesive stuff I've seen ads for that looks interesting -- that might work better than paint. I think it's called Lizard Skin ... something like that.
 
Originally posted by Cougar Allen
There's some adhesive stuff I've seen ads for that looks interesting -- that might work better than paint. I think it's called Lizard Skin ... something like that.

It's called Alien Skin. It's amazingly bright for a glow-in-the-dark product. For the first ten minutes or so it's as bright as a green Glowring. After that it slowly starts to dim but will still hold a glow throughout the entire night.

I put a tiny piece of the stuff on the reflectors of my flashlights and a thin band around the barrel. It makes it easy to locate the flashlight in the dark. Sorry but I don't have a website for it.

Scott
 
I used to buy a couple of dozens of the glow rings from Traser UK and have them shipped to Thailand. Now that their website is saying that they no longer ship outside the UK, I wonder how survivalkeychain.com got hold of them?

Bagheera: Can you still buy directly from Traser and have them shipped to Holland?
 
Hi GhiBli,

We can still get Glowrings :D mainly because I work for a company that also has an office in London :) and we often colleagues travel between the UK and the Netherlands.

We're about to place another order for ourselves as Sinter Klaas (the Dutch version of Santa Claus) and Christmass is nearing fast.
Anybody interested drop us an email.

Best Scouting wishes from Holland,

Bagheera
 
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