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Gary Lapook never ceases to amaze me, with his throwaway lines, such as the
latest- "Since I used to assemble nuclear weapons ..."

Bit by bit, we have learned of his involvement with battle-tank artillery,
with ferrying light aircraft across the Atlantic, with his later life as a
lawyer specialising in aviation, and early life as a Chicago postman. What
other surprises does he have in store for us? It makes my own life seem
pretty humdrum.

I suspect there are the makings of a good autobiography in all that.

George.

contact George Huxtable, at  george@hux.me.uk
or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222)
or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gary LaPook" 
To: 
Sent: Monday, September 06, 2010 7:04 PM
Subject: [NavList] Re: Radium illumination


Since I used to assemble nuclear weapons I still have my dosimeters that
measure the amount of radiation absorbed. I decided to see how much
radiation was coming out of the A-7. I placed three different dosimeters
with ranges of 0 to 200 milliroentgens, 0 to 1 roentgen and 0 to 200
roentgens, since I didn't know what level of radiation to expect, into the
box with the A-7. Twelve hours later the most sensitive dosimeter
registered 70 milliroentgens which was confirmed by the second dosimeter
showing something less than a tenth of a roentgen and the least sensitive
dosimeter registered no change.This means that the rate is about 6
milliroentgens per hour which would result in an exposure of about 50
roentgens per year, about 250 times the normal background exposure!  Any
exposure below 25 rems (approximately the same as a roentgen) produces no
detectable clinical effects on humans so one could spend six months inside
the sextant box without harm.

But, of course, the dose rate is governed by the inverse square law meaning
that the rate drops off based on the square of the distance. My dosimeters
are about one inch from the bubble chamber but my TV watching couch is 15
feet (180 inches) away from the bookcase where I keep the sextant. 180 ^2 =
32,400 so the rate of radiation I receive from the sextant while sitting on
my couch is only 0.185 microroentgens per hour, 1.6 milliroentgens per year
above the normal background dose of about 200 milliroentgens per year. I
guess that I won't loose a lot of sleep worrying about this.

gl
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