£4 shipping for a 3g item?
Atomic keyrings: Just how bright are they?
Since El Reg's merchandising tentacle Cash'n'Carrion responded to reader demand for atomic keyrings and took delivery of a big crate of Nite Glowrings and Mini Glowrings, we've had a few emails asking how bright they actually are. Three colours of Nite Glowring Indeed, a couple of customers who flashed the plastic for these …
COMMENTS
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Wednesday 18th March 2015 14:05 GMT Anonymous Coward
Versus £9.89 and £2.99 (or free, which is it?) postage from one Amazon.uk seller.
Or £6.49 and £6.00 postage from another for Bivvy Markers.
At least the first claims they'll ship worldwide. Or I could ship to my employer's office in London and pick it up on my way through in a couple of weeks. Or maybe if I knew of a shop that carried them I could just pop in and buy it off the shelf.
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Wednesday 18th March 2015 20:03 GMT x 7
biggest manufacturer of tritium light sources is IN Canada - they have the technology of the old UK Saunders-Roe company who first developed these
see http://www.srbt.com/index.php
you can get a better idea of what these can be used for on the website of the european agent
http://www.defence-industries.com/defenceadmin/upload//productspec_pdf/1414760343betalight-catalogues.PDF
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Wednesday 18th March 2015 15:01 GMT james 68
Re: I bought a couple of the originals...
The "ice blue" one I got from the reg many moons ago was bright enough, in fact noticeably so even under dim conditions as opposed to full on dark. I would suggest that perhaps yours had been mishandled in the post and the glass tritium container had cracked.
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Wednesday 18th March 2015 15:49 GMT james 68
Re: How bright are they?
I cannot speak for the brightness of the 'new' versions, however the old ones were I believe made by Traser? and they were quite bright. Enough so that I could pick out my luggage at a distance on airport conveyors in the seemingly standard dim lighting.
(I used it to mark luggage on many occasions and was never once questioned about it, so I dunno why there are shipping restrictions.)
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Wednesday 18th March 2015 17:43 GMT NumptyScrub
Re: How bright are they?
I have a Traser branded green one of these I got as a present from a friend over a decade ago (more like 15+ years I think). When appraised as a torch, the output is pitiful bordering on useless. When appraised just as a luminous marker that needs no batteries, the output is perfectly adequate and they appear to last for ever.
I can't read books with it (at least I wouldn't want to try), but I can always find my keys in the dark. ;)
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Thursday 19th March 2015 09:03 GMT Danny 14
Re: How bright are they?
my green one is still going too (traser). Is it as bright as it was? Don't know, it was never BRIGHT but bright enough to grab the keys if I dropped them in the dark and it still is. I could never read in the dark with it (maybe large text but not a book or anything like that) but you could certainly put it on a tent zipper to mark it.
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Wednesday 18th March 2015 14:29 GMT Yesnomaybe
Green is best
I got a green one for myself, and a pink one for my significant other. I kinda knew green would have the highest output, and I'm very happy indeed. The pink one is noticeably dimmer but still glows OK. Oh, and the wife is a lot less "OMG, it's an ACTUAL nuclear reactor in MY POCKET!!!" than me, so she doesn't seem to mind too much about the output. She would have preferred flowers she said, but that wasn't on the cards that day, so she was happy enough to get a keyring.
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Thursday 19th March 2015 02:37 GMT Fruit and Nutcase
Re: Green is best
Oh, and the wife is a lot less "OMG, it's an ACTUAL nuclear reactor in MY POCKET!!!" than me
in which case, did she say...
Is that an ACTUAL nuclear reactor in YOUR POCKET, or are you just happy to see me?
(I would be happy to see Paris. Somehow I doubt the sentiment would be reciprocated).
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Wednesday 18th March 2015 14:41 GMT Doctor_Wibble
Decommissioned nukes
Since these are tritium based, and tritium is used in nukes, then the logical conclusion is that the source material has come from decommissioned nukes or is spare from making new ones and therefore an unexpected benefit of the 'peace dividend' from all that investment in finding the most effective ingredients in the quest to blow shit up.
Hurrah for Global Thermonuclear War!
And also Hurrah for not actually having one.
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Wednesday 18th March 2015 19:53 GMT phuzz
Re: Decommissioned nukes
From a quick bit of googling, it looks like you need a nuclear reactor to produce tritrium, and while there are plants that produce it for use in nuclear weapons, civilian plants can produce it as well.
I'd be interested to know where the tritium in elreg's keyrings is sourced from, sounds like a good article to me!
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Wednesday 18th March 2015 23:38 GMT x 7
Re: Decommissioned nukes
unlikely...with a short half-life the americans need all they have to keep their existing arsenal intact. Looks like they're trying to restart - or have restarted - production but are having problems. The original plant was shut down some years ago - seemingly on health/safety grounds.
It SEEMS that the bulk of commercial production (bulk being a very small actual quantity by weight - less than a kilo / year) comes from the Canadian CANDU reactors. However like any potential military technology, whats reported may be well different from reality. I also suspect that the Swiss may have their own production source as they are the "other" supplier of these lights alongside the Germans (El Reg's supplier) and the Canadians. Historically both Switzerland and Canada were "big" in deuterium production (both have plenty of hydroelectric power to provide the energy for the separation, whether chemical or electrolytic) and became market leaders in isotopic chemicals and solvents. Making tritium is completely different manufacturing technology, but an obvious marketing follow-on from deuterium.
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Thursday 19th March 2015 12:14 GMT The last doughnut
Re: Decommissioned nukes
According to my extensive reading on the subject, Tritium is not used in the majority of nuclear weapons. The relatively short half-life is problematic for long-term storage and maintenance. Instead your typical thermonuclear device uses lithium isotopes. And also expanded polystyrene, strangely.
Fascinating if somewhat scary subject to read about, if you have a spare day and don't mind spending it on Wikipedia. The history of the test programmes is also fascinating.
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Wednesday 18th March 2015 20:55 GMT R J Murgatroyd
The original ones
I bought a small batch of the original ones and have a couple around the place. The one on my keyring is still bright enough to locate it with in a dim-to-moderately-lit room. It would be interesting to compare side-by-side with a new one. Are fresh batches of tritium readily available to fill these things with, do they put the same quantity in, is the phosphor the same etc. etc. There must be a way to compare them, any ideas apart from cough up for a new one?
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Wednesday 18th March 2015 22:14 GMT Richard 12
What odd units
Under 4 microlumens per square inch.
Or 1.3 candela / sq metre in SI units.
So, roughly the brightness of a single candle diffused across a square metre.
Wolfram Alpha says it's less than half the apparent luminance of the twilight sky.
Which is very dim, as the human eye is logarithmic.
But certainly visible.
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Thursday 19th March 2015 06:24 GMT thegreatglowstickripoff
I bought the blue and orange mini units. The blue is only viewable in the darkest room and I've yet to see any orange in any room at any light level.
As the postage is prohibitive it's not worth returning them for a replacement, especially as if it does work it will be so dim as to be nearly worthless anyway.
I feel the image showing four of the units to be misleading and the true brightness is significantly less than displayed.
If I'd bought these items from any retailer in Australia I would have a legitimate recourse for a refund as they are not fit for purpose.
Very disappointed.
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Friday 20th March 2015 10:16 GMT Anonymous Coward
Mine's fine
I bought a white one, and once the lights are out, it casts a surprising amount of light considering the source. My leccy is still dependent on pound coins being inserted into a meter, and when it ran out the other evening, my atomic-powered keyring light saved the day, letting me see where my battery-powered lamp was so I could turn that on then safely get some more dosh into the meter.
10/10 from me, El Reg!