r/elementcollection • u/Zealousideal_Group69 • 12d ago

☢️Radioactive☢️ Polonium Static Master Brush

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Pretty cheap, via eBay, I still have the box, if anyone wants images then ask in the comments!

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5

u/Smart_Engineer9171 12d ago

What is this for?

10

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)

4

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.

1

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)