Hi all,
I didn't see a detailed photo study on these posted here, so I thought I'd share some photos of my set.
Radioluminescent sights were introduced for the Gew 98 and Artillery Luger in 1917. The principal is much the same as that of old radium dial clocks or aircraft instruments. The technology was in its early stages during WW1. These early radioluminescent paints were later determined to be unsafe (in part due to the unfortunate women in U.S. factories pointing their paint brushes with their mouths and ingesting radium paint) and were gradually replaced with safer alternatives (tritium, etc...)
From my understanding, while Ludwig Sudicatis & Co. was the original contractor on radium night sights, C. Lorenz in Berlin also produced them. They bear a C.L. maker's mark for Lorenz production.
This set of sights reside on my 1917 Danzig "d" block.
The zinc sulfide in the paint has long since broken down, depleting the radioluminescence, but the paint will continue to shed low level radioactivity long after we are gone due to radium 226's long half-life (~1,600 years)
These are a damn cool accessory regardless whether or not they still glow.
I didn't see a detailed photo study on these posted here, so I thought I'd share some photos of my set.
Radioluminescent sights were introduced for the Gew 98 and Artillery Luger in 1917. The principal is much the same as that of old radium dial clocks or aircraft instruments. The technology was in its early stages during WW1. These early radioluminescent paints were later determined to be unsafe (in part due to the unfortunate women in U.S. factories pointing their paint brushes with their mouths and ingesting radium paint) and were gradually replaced with safer alternatives (tritium, etc...)
From my understanding, while Ludwig Sudicatis & Co. was the original contractor on radium night sights, C. Lorenz in Berlin also produced them. They bear a C.L. maker's mark for Lorenz production.
This set of sights reside on my 1917 Danzig "d" block.
The zinc sulfide in the paint has long since broken down, depleting the radioluminescence, but the paint will continue to shed low level radioactivity long after we are gone due to radium 226's long half-life (~1,600 years)
These are a damn cool accessory regardless whether or not they still glow.
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