Radium Hand Cleaning

[digitaltripper]

Hello all,
I am currently servicing a Wittnauer A-11 8 day aircraft clock. The hands appear to have mildew on them?? Is this possible with radioactive hands, and if so, could I use a diluted bleach solution on say a qtip to remove the mildew??

I have included these pics:

Radium Hands

20180320_181613.jpg (74.38 KiB) Viewed 3558 times

[Randy]

I would say that the mildew on radium hands is possible.
That said, I would not introduce any chemical to clean these. It's impossible to know what the reaction could be.

On the few radium hands that I've worked on, I only wiped them clean with rodico, and wore gloves and a mask.

These radioactive elements have half-lives of may years ( 100s-1000s).

I just don't think that without a lab setup, that we are safe to really take on the restoration of them

Best regards,

Randy

[Fresh767]

Hi everybody - newbie here and trying to learn what I can about my new hobby

This article will_ probably_answer any questions on luminous dials. I found it a while ago. The article is quite long and very well written. One section, for example, is titled "Reactivating Radium Paint"


Here's another I just found:


Interesting additional info:


On a slightly different note, the following is unbelievable that some people can be so callous:


THAT'S IT … I'm done

FredF

[digitaltripper]

Hi Fred

Welcome to the forms and thank you for your input !! This clock is back to it's owner. I decided to leave the hands as they were. Thanks again and welcome.