Product Description
Super-Hot Waltham Lensatic Compass – U.S. Military Vietnam War Era, Ra-226
Waltham Vietnam War Era Lensatic Compass with Radiation Damage
This compass is fully functional but barely luminous under UV light due to phosphor destruction—a unique example of long-term radiation damage.
Fast Ra-226 Calibration: A spectrum of this specimen (with data logged beyond 2204 keV) was captured in just 2 minutes using the Radiacode 103, with an average of 1.01 Million CPM, as shown in the last photo.
Point-source measurements with the Radiacode 102 and 103 were well over 50 mR/h (gamma only) on contact. To comply with regulatory requirements—including the 0.5 mR/h package surface limit (beta + gamma)—the compass will ship inside a lead envelope in a twelve-inch box!
Disclaimer: Although point-source measurements for this specimen were over 50 mR/h, handling this specimen will not result in that dose rate to the entire body. This measurement is provided to illustrate the challenges of shipping the specimen and does not represent actual handling exposure, as the inverse square law states that radiation intensity decreases rapidly with the square of the distance from the source. As radiophiles, we can all do our part to slow the proliferation of radiophobia by sharing device-specific count rates for point-source measurements instead of unrealistic total-body dose rates.
Devices are not included.
