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Child Item

I bet you didnt know that

Cartouche

As people here work in various jobs / professions they might know things from work or study no one here knows yet. this is what this topic is about.

what do you know that we have never heard of?

Eg: you don't need to be great at maths to be an architect

this is obvious to me but everyone says to me "i wanted to be an architect but i was bad at math,i can barely add"

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Wibbs

IIRC Radium is a bugger because its a heavy gamma producer. Tritium's output would be stopped by the case and glass of the watch. The only real risk would have been to watchmakers who had to open the case to service the movement. The radium mixes also broke down like a bugger. Extremely hygroscopic, so suck up the damp from the atmosphere, which makes them break down even more. into dust that permeates everything. Dust you really would not want to breathe in. Would make a 60 a day ciggie habit look healthy.

Years back in the 90's a watch of mine from the 1930's was tested by a lass I knew who was writing up a paper on radioactive sources in the home and was described as "low level nuclear waste"(she got quite panicked. And she wasn't the type). I got the dial cleaned and reprinted, but the movement also needed to be stripped right down and cleaned as it was emitting radiation of its own from the accumulated dust. As a kid I regularly used to wear that watch to bed as the loud ticking calmed me....

Me. Earlier.

:eek:

Carry

The Radium Girls, who painted watches and clocks with the radium-infused fluorescent colour, started themselves to glow in the dark, when they went home after work.

Each girl mixed her own colour, a mixture of water, gummi arabicum, zinc sulphide and of course Radium.
The paint contained only little radium, but the particles set everywhere, on work desks, hair and clothing. Passers-by saw a golden glow around the girls.

Some girls reported that when they cleaned their noses, the stuff that came out was glowing at night. Some even rubbed reportedly their teeth with the stuff to have a "radiant smile".

However, the Radium girls paid a high price. The Radium stored itself like Calcium into the bones. Eventually the bones became brittle like glass and broke at the lightest touch. A horrible death for the sake of luminous clock-faces.

milli milli

Wibbs wrote: »

The radiation is cut quite appreciably when the lid is down. The case and lid is silver so maybe that's it? Silver is quite dense a metal. I'd expect the much rarer gold cases would cut the radiation even more.

Alpha & beta radiation would be stopped by the silver but something stronger like lead would stop gamma & x-rays. I’m not sure what type of radiation is emitted by those compounds you mentioned, maybe they don’t emit the higher energy radiation?

https://www.mirion.com/introduction-to-radiation-safety/types-of-ionizing-radiation/#

Wibbs

JRant wrote: »

As late as the mid 1940's radioactive products were still being sold to the general public.

They do mention clocks, but radium dialled watches were going well into the 1960's. Then for luminous dials they went to Tritium. Far less "hot", but still radioactive. That went on into the 90's in standard form, with a foray into promethium in the 80's(very short half life to drive the glow, two years IIRC). Today you can buy Tritium dialled watches where the tritium is encapsulated in vials to reduce the exposure by a large amount(down to basically nothing).

With all these "luminous" dials, the radioactive substance itself doesn't luminess, it charges the phosphorescent material mixed with it. You know your usual luminous watch these days that glows after exposure to the sun? Well the old style radium/promethium/tritium takes the place of the sun. Radium was so active it burnt out the phosphorescent material within a couple of years(early wiristwatch adverts guaranteed two years glowing). However, even though the old dials don't glow anymore, the radium, with (IIRC) a half life of over 1500 years is still as active and potentially deadly today.

Here's one of my personal hoard of World War One "trench" watches. Avec radium dial.

Almost certainly painted by hand by a "Radium Girl". No longer glows, but is hot as fook. The flip top lid is of all things a "shrapnel guard". Like that would help... The radiation is cut quite appreciably when the lid is down. The case and lid is silver so maybe that's it? Silver is quite dense a metal. I'd expect the much rarer gold cases would cut the radiation even more.

Realt Dearg Sec

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

^^^^

Jaysus, with the amount of random countries laying claim to the place, we might as well just declare a chunk of it to be Irish. Sure why not? I don't see any good reason why Britain would have a better claim than we would.

KevRossi

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

^^^^

Nope, they are not recognised as jurisdictions, just territorial claims with no legal international standing. Along with this, the South Pole and a distance around it is an international space, so they do not theoretically meet in a point.

Article IV of the Antarctic Treaty, which preserves the status quo:

No acts or activities taking place while the present Treaty is in force shall constitute a basis for asserting, supporting or denying a claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica or create any rights of sovereignty in Antarctica. No new claim, or enlargement of an existing claim to territorial sovereignty in Antarctica shall be asserted while the present Treaty is in forceternational standing.

mzungu

In January 1992 a cargo ship going from Hong Kong to America overturned and 28,000 plastic ducks ended up being lost at sea. Although, strictly speaking not all were lost, as a good few have been found washed up on shores throughout the world and have helped to teach us about ocean currents. Likewise, the ones still floating in the sea have given a deeper understanding of ocean currents. The ducks have washed up along the shores of Hawaii, Alaska, South America, Australia and the Pacific Northwest, Newfoundland, Scotland whilst others have been found frozen in Arctic ice.

Quite a number of the ducks have been spotted in the North Pacific Gyre (see image below) - thus helping to identify a vortex of currents stretching between Japan to Alaska Kodiak and the Aleutian Islands. Roughly, it takes the three years for the ducks to do a full loop in the current.

Friendly-Floatees.jpg.838x0_q80.jpg

Capt'n Midnight

^^^^

New Home

KevRossi wrote: »

A Quadripoint is a point where 4 equal jurisdictions meet. Probably the best know one worldwide is in the USA, where Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado meet.

However, this is well beaten by the Italians who managed to get a Decipoint, by getting 10 districts to meet at the summit of Mt. Etna. It is the only known place on earth where this happens.

I didn't know that, and I looked it up - it's actually 11 (and one municipality even has two "slots" - here shown in pale green)! EDIT: No, 10 is right, I looked at a smaller map earlier and didn't notice that one didn't reach the summit.

The borders of ten municipalities (Adrano, Biancavilla, Belpasso, Bronte (from two sides), Castiglione di Sicilia, Maletto, Nicolosi, Randazzo, Sant'Alfio, Zafferana Etnea) meet on the summit of Mount Etna, making this point one of elevenfold complexity, and the most complicated geopolitical multi-point anywhere north of the South Pole

KevRossi

A Quadripoint is a point where 4 equal jurisdictions meet. Probably the best know one worldwide is in the USA, where Arizona, Utah, New Mexico and Colorado meet.

However, this is well beaten by the Italians who managed to get a Decipoint, by getting 10 districts to meet at the summit of Mt. Etna. It is the only known place on earth where this happens.

Franz Von Peppercorn

Vera Lynn is up there with Olivia. One year younger.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vera_Lynn

WWII seems so long ago. It seemed long ago when I was born. Yet there’s the “forces sweetheart”, a best selling musician (as an adult not a child) during that war. Still alive. Still singing. Released an album last year.

KevRossi

MikeyTaylor wrote: »

As is Olivia de Havilland

Who is also the oldest person ever to be made a Dame and herself and her sister Joan Fontaine are the only siblings to have received Academy Awards in the role of leading actor.

JRant

As late as the mid 1940's radioactive products were still being sold to the general public.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/12732/9-ways-people-used-radium-we-understood-risks

Check out No 7 on the list, not for the faint hearted :0

Ipso

RiderOnTheStorm wrote: »

when I worked in IT we discovered a bug in one of the financial packages. After hours and hours of investigations we narrowed it down to the addition of two variables. One contains a value of 4, the other contained a value of 3, and when they were added together the sum was 6.999 ..... We fixed it, but never figured out why.

Computers can be a right pain!

Rounding can be fun.
2 (2.3) + 2 (2.3) = 5 (4.6)

RiderOnTheStorm

Fourier wrote:

Bertrand Russel and Lord Alfred Whitehead ..... finally prove 1 + 1 = 2

when I worked in IT we discovered a bug in one of the financial packages. After hours and hours of investigations we narrowed it down to the addition of two variables. One contains a value of 4, the other contained a value of 3, and when they were added together the sum was 6.999 ..... We fixed it, but never figured out why.

Computers can be a right pain!

razorblunt

bilbot79 wrote: »

Horses change their gait when the increased speed brings the pressure on their bones to one third of their tensile strength

Yeah, but if you open their gait too much then they'll bolt.

Wibbs

StupidLikeAFox wrote: »

To put that into perspective he was 53 when the moon landings happened and in his late 70s when the Berlin Wall came down

I actually knew that about Kirk. He was born the same year as my oulfella and he mentioned he was the same age as Kirk. He made it into the millennium, not quite as far as oul dimple chin.

Folks born then who made it into their 80's, even their 70's saw a lot of stuff come along. From canvas biplanes to landing on the moon in one lifetime. Never mind two world wars(just) and all the other stuff of the modern age.I wonder if someone born in 2016 will get to see such massive changes. In some ways, hopefully not.

StupidLikeAFox

thewolfisloose wrote: »

Kirk Douglas is still alive. He was born in 1916, and is due to turn 102 in December.

To put that into perspective he was 53 when the moon landings happened and in his late 70s when the Berlin Wall came down

MikeyTaylor

thewolfisloose wrote: »

Kirk Douglas is still alive. He was born in 1916, and is due to turn 102 in December.

As is Olivia de Havilland

thesandeman

py2006 wrote: »

I was convinced he died earlier this year.

That was his career.
He received an award for services to the industry or something.

py2006

thewolfisloose wrote: »

Kirk Douglas is still alive. He was born in 1916, and is due to turn 102 in December.

I was convinced he died earlier this year.

thewolfisloose

Kirk Douglas is still alive. He was born in 1916, and is due to turn 102 in December.

prinzeugen

mzungu wrote: »

Heroin was used to treat children's coughs.

Although better known today for their slightly less addictive asprin, Bayer commercialised heroin in the 1890s as a cough, cold, and pain remedy. As late as 1912 they were marketing it for children, even though there were plenty of reports by that time on its addictive properties. The FDA eventually called a halt and in 1914 heroin was restricted to prescription-only use. In 1924 they went the full hog and banned it altogether.

Below are some Spanish advertisements from 1912...

We dug up tons of old glass bottles on our allotments. Millions of OXO jars but one was interesting.

I think it was called "Mothers helper" or similar. A Google told us it was a Morphine bottle from the early 1900's. It was rubbed of the gums of teething kids!

It still had the stopper and a bit liquid in it as did a old Milton bottle. We dumped the Morphine one as we were told having it was illegal.

Ipso

barrymanilow wrote: »

Most of the huge walls of amplifiers behind and around a rock band on bigger stages like festival s etc don't actually produce sound , they are just there for visual effect

Only the ones that don’t go to 11.

mzungu

Heroin was used to treat children's coughs.

Although better known today for their slightly less addictive asprin, Bayer commercialised heroin in the 1890s as a cough, cold, and pain remedy. As late as 1912 they were marketing it for children, even though there were plenty of reports by that time on its addictive properties. The FDA eventually called a halt and in 1914 heroin was restricted to prescription-only use. In 1924 they went the full hog and banned it altogether.

Below are some Spanish advertisements from 1912...

Fourier

Bertrand Russel and Lord Alfred Whitehead at the start of the 20th century set out to prove that mathematics all worked, that there were no hidden flaws in it. In the first volume of their massive work Principia Mathematica on p.379 they finally prove 1 + 1 = 2

bilbot79

Horses change their gait when the increased speed brings the pressure on their bones to one third of their tensile strength

Realt Dearg Sec

the purple tin wrote: »

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

How does an amplifier produce a visual effect?

Like just a wall of them to look more impressive

Ah ok that makes sense, I thought the post said visual effects, plural.

EDIT: it did

PaddyWilliams

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

How does an amplifier produce a visual effect?

By looking cool in the background I imagine? Or something to that effect anyway. All picture, no sound!

the purple tin

Realt Dearg Sec wrote: »

How does an amplifier produce a visual effect?

Like just a wall of them to look more impressive