With some film and a saltshaker, you can take radioactive pictures
Posted 12.17.2009 at 3:09 pm
4 Comments
X-Ray Camera A radium button sends radiation down through an earring onto tinfoil-wrapped instant film.
Mike Walker
Everyone knows light exposes film, but other forms of radiation do as well—a fact you can use to take pictures in some pretty unusual ways.
It’s also how radioactivity was first discovered. In 1896, French physicist Henri Becquerel stored some x-ray film in a drawer along with a uranium rock. He suspected that uranium might emit strange rays when exposed to sunlight, but this sample had been kept entirely in the dark, so he was surprised to find, on developing it, that the mineral had exposed the film. The discovery of natural radioactivity won him a Nobel Prize.
Wrap It Up : The author used tinfoil to protect the instant film from light. This step must be done in total darkness. Mike Walker
Next I set a big, flat butterfly-shaped earring directly on top of the wrapped film. I suspended the most radioactive thing I have, a small radium puck from an old classroom set, several inches above the earring. This allowed the radiation to shine through it and onto the film, exposing it right through the foil wrapper. Then I developed the film by pulling it through the rollers of an old Polaroid camera (once again, in complete darkness).
This exposure took about 36 hours, determined by trial and lots of error. If you’re willing to wait longer, less-radioactive sources work too, even common salt substitute. Yes, sodium-free salt (potassium chloride) is sufficiently radioactive (from the isotope potassium-40) that after several months, a saltshaker-ful will form an image on film. Provided you don’t forget and eat the radioactive source on your breakfast.
The Moment of Truth : Gray developed the film by pulling it through the rollers in an ancient Polaroid camera.
Achtung! Stronger radiation sources such as radium watch hands, and any source that’s flaking off fine particles, should be handled with care to minimize exposure and avoid contamination.
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I love they call that old instant camera "ancient" in the photo caption. Certainly it's outdated tech and may even be described as antique. I seriously doubt the Myans, Incas, Aztecs, Egyptians, Druids, Romans, Greeks, etc. used one of these camera's. Unless they had a giant version that some of these civilizations pulled the walls of their various palaces and structures through to create the heiroglyphs and similar wall writings we see today. Perhaps that was the workers that built the pyramids device and only the Pharaoh had this smaller one used above. Instead of speculation I should ask Theo at what civilizations archeological dig did they find this?
I think they used the term ancient in a joking manner, and not implying it is actually ancient in the true sense of the word. Lighten up.
Anyways, this is pretty cool and the finished photo looks sweet, someone should turn this into a toy or something, though the uneducated masses might rise up claiming this is going to cause all sorts of problems in children and stop them.
Many years ago I helped a Jr-High student with his science fair project on "Living in a Radioactive World". I taught him how to use and develop film to test objects around the house for radioactivity. I also gave him some uranium ore to duplicate the Becquerel experiment. He found several objects around his house that were radioactive. We then used the most radioactive materials to take x-ray pictures. He won first place in his local region
Instead of speculation I should ask Theo at what civilizations archeological dig did they find this?
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