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Betalight tritium / phosphor light sorce

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jdlenton

jdlenton

Full Member
Dec 14, 2004
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Northampton
Just stumbled across this whilst surfing around for kit
Betalight Tritium / Phosphor light source
p0290.jpg
torchspecs.jpg

(NATO Stock Number X 4/6260-99-965-3582)

I quite like the idea of a no parts, no batteries light source that's kind to night vision and last years I'm not sure if I like the idea of having a radioactive light source or not, had a look round and all the info seems to say they are reasonably safe and don't give out radiation as long as you don't smash them!!!!!

So some questions for you :
Are they any good? Has anyone used one ?
Are they really usable after ten years?
And can they be found cheaper than Penrith have them? £59 is a bit on the steep side for me.

James
 
jdlenton said:
Just stumbled across this whilst surfing around for kit
Betalight Tritium / Phosphor light source
p0290.jpg
torchspecs.jpg

(NATO Stock Number X 4/6260-99-965-3582)

I quite like the idea of a no parts, no batteries light source that's kind to night vision and last years I'm not sure if I like the idea of having a radioactive light source or not, had a look round and all the info seems to say they are reasonably safe and don't give out radiation as long as you don't smash them!!!!!

So some questions for you :
Are they any good? Has anyone used one ?
Are they really usable after ten years?
And can they be found cheaper than Penrith have them? £59 is a bit on the steep side for me.

James
Click to expand...

Answer to question 1, yes.
Answer to question 2, yes
Answer to question 3, yes
Answer to question 4, Don't know, they have always been on the steep side as far as price is concerned.

Tritium is used in quite a few bits in the military, both the SUIT and SUSAT have Trilux elements (tritium) in them. There were also 2 different types of Beta light's, both gave of the same levels of illumination so it doesn't matter which one you have.

Beta lights have been used for allsorts including route markers before now, don't expect them to give of loads of light because they don't, but they do work and they last a long time.
 
I have one of these that i got off ebay, works well but i have never really used itim open for a swap
jdlenton said:
Just stumbled across this whilst surfing around for kit
Betalight Tritium / Phosphor light source
p0290.jpg
torchspecs.jpg

(NATO Stock Number X 4/6260-99-965-3582)

I quite like the idea of a no parts, no batteries light source that's kind to night vision and last years I'm not sure if I like the idea of having a radioactive light source or not, had a look round and all the info seems to say they are reasonably safe and don't give out radiation as long as you don't smash them!!!!!

So some questions for you :
Are they any good? Has anyone used one ?
Are they really usable after ten years?
And can they be found cheaper than Penrith have them? £59 is a bit on the steep side for me.

James
Click to expand...
 
addyb said:
Ugh.....$59 is a bit steep!
Click to expand...

Addy mate that's £59 sterling.

For you in Canadian Dollars it would be about $118 as the exchange rate is just under 2 CAD to 1 GBP at the moment.

From what I recall they have always been along these lines cost wise (well on Civvy street they were), they cost a bit less if you lose one in the forces (as long as you don't get charged for it).
 
I have a tritium glowring, very useful, pretty bright with the night vision aquired from sleep too! cost 3 or 5 quid, can't remember exactly. i wouldn't say you could read maps with it, they are designed just to help you find keys in the dark after all, but in a completely dark room you can easily see where you are going with one.

I was interested in beta lights a few years ago, there was one illustrated in the SAS survival guide, but couldn't find one until i found the penrith ones, which are rather larger than the one i'd seen in lofty wiseman's survival tin.

There really is nothing to worry about unless you break one, and even then, if you are aware and wash off everything you can the risk is minimal. it's most important not to inhale/comsume the dust from them. Despite that, i seem to remember that when buying the glowring that you couldn't get them in california...? but that may have been something else, or have changed..
 
I have always wanted one of those since I saw them in the Survival Aids catalogue in about 88 but they have always been pricey.

Survival Aids is now Penrith Survival Equipment but it used to be at Morland/moorland or however it's spelt :confused:

Outdoorcode sells Glowrings but as far as I know they are more of a keyring thing, quite cool looking all the same I think.
 
Keep in mind that if you get these from ebay, you wont know how long ago the were manufactured and thus how much life they have left.

Beta lights have become a little obsolete since the invention on small LED torches like the photons.

The tritium in a beta light gives you just enough light to read very small areas of a map, a photon gives you enough light to read a whole map, search around in your bag and at a push use as a main light source.

Personally I wouldn’t bother getting a beta light, get a photon 2 max you'll be far better off
 
I've had a Traser watch for quite a while. The hands, dial and bezel have Tritium light sources on.

They seem to work fine in spite of power tool vibration and the odd knock. The radiation hazard of these lights sources is very low, barely anything over typical background radiation. Even breathing in the tritium gas is unlikely to do you any damage in that sort of quantity (should you happen to bite the light in half!).

For what you want are the no batteries and night vision friendliness worth the premium over a little coin cell LED light? Plus you'll still have to replace it every ten-twenty years.

Thanks for finding them, I've heard about them before but not found anywhere selliing them.
 
As I mentioned in my previous post

Beta lights have become a little obsolete since the invention on small LED torches like the photons.

The tritium in a beta light gives you just enough light to read very small areas of a map, a photon gives you enough light to read a whole map, search around in your bag and at a push use as a main light source.
Click to expand...

Tritium light sources are very useful for visual indexing (i.e. marking an item so it can be found in the dark) but particularly useful for illumination

In order to provide a visual demonstration of the light output of tritium light sources I have had a rummage around and taken some photographs of tritium vials of various size and colours along with my watch which uses standard luminous paint on the hands for comparison.

in the light:

watch.jpg


in the dark:

0b299b0d.jpg


The real advantage with tritium is that unlike luminous paints and dyes it does not require 'charging' from an external light source and thus does not lose its luminescence throughout the night

watch and Tritium after 1hr in the dark:

tritvial.jpg
 
Well, modern luminescent paints used on watch faces and indices are much better than they used to be. Even the "big" watch companies like Rolex and Omega switched to Super Luminova from tritium a few years ago. My Seiko has their version of it on it's hands and indices called "Lumibrite." I'm extremely impressed with it and it glows brightly all night long and even in the dawn of the morning I can still see it as it's hardly faded at all. The only drawback is that it must be charged, I find that exposure to my desklamp for about ten minutes gives me an all night glow, and in the outside sunlight, about ten seconds makes it glow to such an extent that I can see it in the shade. It's a far cry from the horrible stuff on my Vostok Amphibia.

Anyway, tritium is very good in the sense that it needs no external light source to activate it and will glow for years and years. The negative side of that is that has a half-life, it reaches a peak and then slowly dwindles off to nothing as time goes by.

Just my $0.02!

Adam
 
I have a very limited knowledge of watches so correct me if I am wrong but I think the Rolex and omega watches used tritium paint rather than tritium gas contained in glass tubes.

"Tritium paint evaporates quickly, and while the phosphor itself will still glow from exposure to UV sources the glow tends to fade after a few hours; the tritium in the old-style paint is almost all gone after 5-6 years" source: http://www.uglx.org/radwatch

this is probably the reason omega and Rolex changed to superluminova paint, you are correct though that the tritium tubes have a half life of 15 years and so will glow half as bright in 15 years time.

I can’t find any details on how long superluminova paint lasts for? (by which i mean not how long it glows after being exposed to UV, but how long it continues to be able to absorb and re-emit light)
 
Stuart,

Yes that's true. In days gone by, tritium paint was the norm. Omega for instance, stopped using tritium in all it's watches in 1997.

If you're looking for info on super luminova try this. It does fade, albeit very slowly.

Cheers,

Adam
 
Tritium is without doubt a wonderful source of lighting for watches - for people like us, but we had someone in the office couple of weeks from SF and he laughed at the tritium watches as like he rightly pointed out, when you are 'live' or 'tactical' the last thing you want is something on your wrist that is as bright as a lighthouse, someone with NVG's will see you a mile off....game over!

Thought that was a good point.
 
people who claim to wear tritium illuminated watches for 'tactical reasons' are most likley wannabes

if you have no concern for 'being tactical' though, tritium or superluminova has a very practical applications
 
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