Tritium handset still glowing?

[Mrpupsi]

Purchased my 16800 sub with luminova hands, so set about finding a tritium set to replace them with.
Then purchased what I was told was a tritium handset with which the patina matched the dial almost perfectly. Had them fitted and was very happy.

Just out of curiosity, I shone my phone torch on them and low and behold, they glowed for a bit and then went out. The dial is completely dead and reacts to no light at all.

My question is, could a tritium handset still glow? Or is this likely to be a luminova handset that has been artificially patina’ed?

[seattleal]

The simple answer is yes. Tritium lume from the mid to late sixties will glow briefly if activated with light.

[Mrpupsi]

Sorry, should have made it clearer.
I’m aware the older subs from the 60s/70s can and do glow, but this is a handset for a 16800/16610?

[springer]

Yes, later replacement tritium hands could have a slight glow.

[SubKing]

its an old debate.. some tritium can still excite when exposed to UV and some don't.

all depends on the batch of tritium. This is why I depend more on my own eyes and knowledge when looking at lume and depend less on UV lights to test.

radium on the other hand is a different animal and will excite when exposed to UV almost always

[77T]

It’s also related to the phosphorus in the lume, too. Tritium or Radium were elemental choices to keep the phosphorus actively glowing. UV wasn’t required.

But once those elements had reached their lifecycle, the paint might still react to UV.

This is something some may benefit from understanding...
Radium or Tritium was mixed with a radioluminescent phosphor chemical in the paint to emit radiation particles. When they strike molecules of the phosphor, it excites them to emit visible light without the need for UV exposure.

But when exposed to ultraviolet light it would increase luminescence. So even after the beta radiation has decayed, it is still possible to excite the phosphors with UV.

This is more common with hands that were produces in late 1990’s just before Luminova debuted.


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[1665fan]

Originally Posted by springer

Yes, later replacement tritium hands could have a slight glow.

Probably later replacement hands but still tritium. I would say they will die soon if they glow very little.

[Mrpupsi]

Thanks for all the replies.

Do tritium and luminova glow different colours at all?
The tritium glows green and I think luminova is generally blue?
I suppose again it’s down to the mix and batch.

[photoguy]

Not sure if this is helpful, but my original 1987 168000 Tritium hands stopped glowing long ago but the pearl on the insert glows a nice (relatively bright) green for hours after turning off the lights at night. My insomnia has confirmed this on many occasions!