...I SAW ONE GO OFF THE SCALE ON A GIEGER COUNTER...
The danger with radium is in ingesting it. It's an alpha emitter. Alpha particle emitters will do serious damage if they're inside you because then the only thing that will stop the alpha particles is you. That's why the girls who used to paint the dials were so badly affected, they used to lick the paint brushes to get a fine point, got a lot of radium in their mouths and ended up with many horrendous illnesses.
A Geiger counter is not sensitive to alpha particles, mostly to gamma rays from the radium decay products. Depending on how energetic they are, gamma rays can go through quite a bit of dense shielding (and they might go straight through you, without doing anything, it's all about probabilities) but alpha particles can't penetrate even a sheet of paper. Just a few centimetres of air is enough to stop them. So if the radium is well contained you don't have to worry unless there's a very large quantity of it, in which case the radiation levels from the decay products (beta particles and gamma rays) can get quite high. Of course if there's a fire the container might be breached but I think you'd be a lot more worried about the fire than about the radium. If your house were burgled and the things were stolen and passed on to an unknowing third party that might become a problem. But I've got watches and clocks with radioactive paint on them, and I don't worry about them at all. There's probably more radioactive material in me than there is in my clocks.
I am so worried about the radium cos i have two of my own kids still at home plus two grand kids who visit very regularly. if i buy a compass which contains the lovely stuff i always have it sorted
Very wise. If something went terribly wrong it would be no good saying afterwards that you'd explained it to them. But I think they're at more risk from the TV and the computer screens (X rays) and mobile 'phones (microwave radiation) than they are from your compass collection, because they'll spend many, many hours glued to both. And risk from all these things pales into insignificance when compared with the risks from motor vehicles.
so anyway if theres no signs of leakage or the brown sludge pink sludge you may have yourself a deal.
I'll have a look for it on Monday. As I said, don't hold your breath. It's a big warehouse and there racks that I haven't looked in for years. I'm pretty sure it won't have been thrown out but it could easily have been moved or put in a crate with a load of other stuff -- in which case I might not see it again for another ten years...
the coleman by the way is the coleman feather but its not the silver one the fuel tank is like a brown copper type colour if that any more help
I think I know the one you mean. Doesn't it have a model number on it somewhere?
I have revised this section cos I thought I should make this listing and my wants list a little clearer
