Trimphone 722 Tritium Dial Glow Pictures

[royalbox]

Here are some pictures of a 1980 Trimphone 722 dial still glowing after all these years.
I used my old Sony Cybershot camera with ISO 400, widest aperture and 30 seconds exposure which is the maximum it can do.

You can still see the tube glow in pitch darkness with the naked eye, but not like these pictures of course.

[HarrySmith]

Pretty  Cool! Still glowing after 38 years! The joy of Uranium degeneration!

[royalbox]

Thanks Harry. Just a couple more with the finger wheel on which is how it would have been seen of course. It's the brightest I could get without post-processing.

[royalbox]

Finally, a bit of post-processing just for fun.

[FABphones]

Nice to see. Have you had the phone long?
Could you add other pics of the complete phone please. What colourway is it?

[royalbox]

I've only just got the phone. It's a badly discoloured ivory one that I want to restore. Dial needs attention too. I hope to make a restoration thread eventually but am currently restoring a blue 746. I had pretty good results before sanding and using acetone vapour to 'melt' the surface. Hopefully that will work on the trimphone too.

[FABphones]

You were very lucky it was still in there. Did you know before you bought it?
I have three and it's missing from all of mine. I'd buy another if I could find one that still glowed.

.....hmmm. I wonder if Kleenax has made one of these yet. Now that would look good in my collection. 

Trimphones remain one of my favourite designs.

[royalbox]

No, I didn't realise they were often missing actually. This is the first one I've had. I've wanted to get one for a while but usually miss out. All seems to be complete and not broken which is always a bonus!

[.....]

That is so neat, great find.

[19and41]

That's really interesting!  I've not seen a tritium vial much larger than 2X6mm.  I know of a source in Europe for the little ones, but  that's a giant!

[twocvbloke]

It's fun to see them still glowing after all these years, I think mine has given up now, but back on 2013 I snapped a pic of it glowing:

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=8812.msg94801#msg94801

[Stormcrash]

Nice finding one with the tube still installed, and it seems to still glow pretty well.  I know Tritium radioluminescent devices are generally considered safe, but something about the idea still kinda freaks me out a bit.  Given the tubes were removed a lot I guess a lot of Britain felt the same back in the day.

It's kinda funny to see the quest for a glowing dial the tech each company picked.
Western Electric - incandescent light bulb, then LED
Automatic Electric - Electroluminescent panel from the Sylvania division
GPO - Radiation

[twocvbloke]

Well, radioactive materials were (and still are) used in a lot of things in the home over the years, Tritium in phones, Thorium in mantle lamps, Radium on watch and clock dials, Americium in smoke alarms, and of course the use of such materials in medicine for dealing with cancers and thyroid problems...

Heck, even bananas (high in Potassium) are radioactive, take a bunch of them into a nuclear power plant and you could set the radiation leak alarms off with them!! 

[royalbox]

Nice finding one with the tube still installed, and it seems to still glow pretty well.

To be fair, my one at least doesn't glow well any more. With the number ring on I can only really see it glowing out of my peripheral vision. Certainly can't see the numbers. Those photos I posted were a 30 second exposure in pitch darkness and the numbers still look dark.

[19and41]

The old source I used to get tritium vials seems to have gone 404.  I do see they are available on amazon, though they are more of a size for optical use.