Re: Radioactive sources

Radioactive sources: if you're interested in thorium, it can be found in
Coleman lantern mantles: the little cloth bags you tie over the apertures in
the lantern where the flame appears.  These are apparently saturated with
the stuff.  I got the word from an engineer at a nuclear plant some years
ago, and was able to verify it at least partially: a geiger counter held
next to Coleman lantern mantles at the store got a very clear reading in the
range of 20mR/hr.  The counter I was using was not sensitive to alphas, so I
presume it was getting betas.  The thorium in the lantern mantles could
presumably be extracted with hydrochloric acid or by some other means.
Clearly not for the amateur, but something which could be done in a lab with
appropriate precautions.  
-gg

Yes, you can get Thorium from lamp nets.  A simpler way is to get it from
welding rods.  They are 40% thorium.  More than one unsespecting lab
technician has welded together an ultrasensitive detector with them, only
to find it not working for some reason <grin>
-- 
Vercotti: I was terrified of him.  Everyone was terrified of Doug.  I've seen
          grown men pull their own heads off rather than see Doug.  Even
          Dinsdale was frightened of Doug.
Interviewer: What did he do?
Vercotti: He used sarcasm.  He knew all the tricks, dramatic irony,
          metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes and satire.
			-- Monty Python, Episode 14
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