Well, I am back from DC and see this subject has continued to run!
Unfortunately, it does look very contradictory to the average reader! My tinsy summary:-
1. Displaying a collection (in a museum display) would require compliance. This is nothing new and has been going on at CockpitFest for some time.
2. For collectors in the UK, you can collect this stuff legally….fact.
3. Harm comes mainly from dust, so stay clear of glassless/cracked glass or damaged case instruments.
4. Think of a radium touched up luminous instrument as ‘original art’….ergo two copies will have different paint thickness and the ‘strength’ of the paint may also differ (as both I and Bruce have pointed out until we are blue in the face). Also, some glass is thicker than others. This then illustrates the fact that two seemingly identical and part numbered gauges can have different emmissions.
A day ago, I saw a (what I would think from experience was a) very ‘hot’ instrument in a perspex display case at the NASM. The museum had put a thick piece of glass infront of the gauge….this would reduce the dose to within regs.
This thread is interesting, but has actually confused matters to many. I have been collecting over 30 years and have taken radium instruments very seriously (see my previous threads)….it is all about risk management and commonsense for the collector. Displaying adds a dimension, that is not insurmountable. This can range from putting a barrier around the source to ensure no-one is exposed to the source at a level above that that is permitted…..to putting ‘barriers’ to reduce radiation (the majority of Ra radiation is alpha that only goes a few cm, however, the exception is the cumulative effect of several co-located sources).
To take Ian’s spit panel as an example, put it in a perspex box with a gap of 8 inches all around, with a sheet of plate glass to the front and you could probably show that off at a display quite happily.
It is a serious subject, I wish I had never done all the dumb stuff I did with instruments during my early years. Time will tell what it will have done. Now, it is all about risk management and that is what I do.
Anyway, I am jet lagged so will leave you all to it!
Regarding aircrew in front of instruments – sounds all well and good but adds completely nothing, really it is a bit like the old comedy sketch about the chap saying “do you know, if I wore this watch for the rest of my life….I would be dead??!!”
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