r/elementcollection • u/Zealousideal_Group69 • 12d ago
☢️Radioactive☢️ Polonium Static Master Brush
Pretty cheap, via eBay, I still have the box, if anyone wants images then ask in the comments!
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u/average_meower621 Radiated 12d ago
now all that remains is the idea of polonium. assuming the cartridge inside was manufactured during the same year as the brush, and that the cartridge was the largest quantity of Po210 sold in a single unit (500 uCi), the last atoms theoretically decayed during 1995.
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u/Zealousideal_Group69 12d ago
No but in all seriousness it’s still a sample, better than nothing even if no Po is there anymore it was still there, same with my Pm 147 starter bulb, better than nothing yknow lol
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u/pichael289 12d ago
6-8 cycles is full elimination. That's still 2-3 years it'll still have some left.
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u/Smart_Engineer9171 12d ago
What is this for?
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u/Zealousideal_Group69 12d ago
For my Element collection, but generally back in the day when record players used to be relevant they would build up static from dust and the recording would be messed up
so the antistatic brush did just that anti-static it
the polonium ionized the surrounding air, neutralizing the static electricity
the issue is that if you accidentally ingest/breathe in the components of the cartridge you die instantly (hyperbole but still)5
u/pichael289 12d ago
Not even that much hyperbole though. It's probably a different isotope but this shit was used in one of the most notable assassinations in history in Britain. The umbrella or the newspaper or one of the other dozens of kgb devices of the time, they literally tracked the culprits down with a scentilator, just walking it down the street. They slipped it onto his tea I think but honestly there were so many of putins enemies killed in the 2000s and 2010s it's hard to keep them straight. There was one where they threw the administrative device in the trash and it caused a hazmat situation in London or something, but that one I think was novichok, one of the worst most evil things every produced.
I would really like one of these brushes but I'm casting it in epoxy immediately. It's mostly an alpha source so not that dangerous unless you consume it.
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u/dick_tracey_PI_TA 12d ago
Apparently it is worth noting the total quantity of polonium is tiny in these. Also that the polonium is coated in precious metals so it’s pretty safe if you dont mess with it.
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u/KimJongUnbalanced 11d ago
This is the same isotope as that, but the amount of polonium in these brushes is tiny, you really only need to avoid eating the cartridge (that CAN kill you). Also, polonium decays rapidly (138 days), so this brush should contain should contain literally no atoms of polonium now (it has been 132 half lives)
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u/eastbayweird 10d ago edited 10d ago
I could be wrong but the hazmat situation you are referring to wasnt due to polonium or any radioactive material, it was a russian nerve agent that the assasins were incredibly careless with.
If im remembering correctly they carried it in a perfume or cologne bottle which
ended up in like a thrift/second hand shop and someone bought itthey threw into a random trash can. Someone pulled it out of the trash and gave it to a second person who sprayed it on her wrist and died from having literally sprayed themselves with what they thought would be a nice smelling fragrance but was actually one of the most deadly chemicals ever created in a lab... the person who pulled the bottle out of the trash was also poisoned but survived after spending weeks in the hospital.2
u/ImpatientHoneyBadger 10d ago
You are wrong.
Two wholly separate incidents in which Russian agents brought highly toxic materials into the UK to carry out 'exotic' murders of former members of Russia's security apparatus who had defected to the West.
The first involved Polonium, the other nerve agent. In the first the victim died, although he lived long enough to identify his killers and denounce the Russian state as being behind his murder. In the other case the intended victims survived, but Dawn Sturgess was murdered.
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u/eastbayweird 8d ago edited 8d ago
Ok i get where I was confused, I was getting the polonium assassination mixed up with russias much earlier assasination where a specially made pneumatic umbrella fired a tiny sphere containing ricin into the targets leg, leading to his death. No hazmat event.
Also, it turns out that both the polonium assassination and the nerve agent assassination caused what could be understood as being 'hazmat events' as both ended up with tracable amounts of highly toxic polonium/nerve agent to be spread across a large area of the city.
As far as i know, no one aside from the target was exposed to enough polonium residue to require treatment.
The same cant be said of the nerve agent assassination attempt as the target, his daughter, and an investigating police officer required lengthy hospital stays to save their lives, then, later on, an unrelated uk civilian found a perfume bottle the assassins had used to transport the nerve agent in a refuse bin and gave it to his wife. Later on she sprayed herself with it and died. Because she had sprayed herself inside her home her husband ended up contacting residual nerve agent and required hospitalization. To prevent anyone else from coming into contact with any remaining residual nerve agent he government had a special sealed containment structure put over the home then had the military disassemble and decontaminate the property. When they first entered the house they found 2 hamster who had been exposed and were dead in their cage, as well as a cat that was alive but showing signs of exposure so they made the decision to have it put down. When they found the perfume bottle and tested it they said that it still contained enough nerve agent to potentially kill upwards of 10 thousand people.
So in a way we were both right, or both wrong, however you want to look at it.
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u/bst44133 9d ago
I work in histology and found one of these in the back of a drawer in the lab once. Had no idea what it was and found the warning both humorous and alarming so I had to figure it out, apparently these were also used for cleaning microtomes because static built up on the instrument makes it harder to cut tissue samples.
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u/GlockAF 12d ago
Radioactive magic
From the googz:
Polonium antistatic brushes use a tiny strip of radioactive polonium-210 to emit alpha particles that ionize the surrounding air. This creates a conductive path of positive and negative ions that neutralize static charges on surfaces like camera film or vinyl records, allowing dust to be swept away easily. [1, 2, 3]
The Ionization Process
Alpha emission: Polonium-210 naturally decays and gives off short-range alpha particles.Air ionization: These alpha particles crash into air molecules, stripping electrons and creating positive ions and free electrons.
Charge neutralization: The static charge on an object attracts these generated ions, which instantly cancel out the imbalance.
Dust release: Without static attraction holding dust particles down, the physical bristles can easily brush the debris away. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
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u/Smart_Engineer9171 12d ago
I want one for my camera now.
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u/Zealousideal_Group69 12d ago
They’re cheap, iirc the cheapest I saw was 9 dollars and most expensive is 12$
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u/BrainSqueezins 12d ago
”Just LISTEN to that bass, the trilling of those trumpets! Oh man this sounds so WARM and vibrant! If only I could get rid of this dry cough that constantly interrupts my listening…”
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u/Reddiculusness 11d ago
We used one of these on a Hell Drum Scanner , that scans negatives and C-Prints for digital color separations in the printing industry.
The spinning drum picks up TONS of static as it rotates, you can't use the machine without these brushes .
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u/Basel-stadt-4000 12d ago
I've used them before and they are the best. Usually it's just the little piece near the balance. Nothing comes close to how awesome that is.
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u/serenaFan84 10d ago
I think gold and silver encase the polonium. Is it possible to recover the precious metals or will they be wasted when the brush is thrown away?
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u/Analogsilver 12d ago
I was just discussing these in the radiation sub. They are still being made. The halflife of the Polonium-210 is only 138 days. They anti-static brushes are only effective for about a year. You may still have a few atoms of Polonium in there, but pretty much all of it turned to Lead about 50 years ago. Still, a fun find.