Spinthariscopes | Hacker News Reader

Spinthariscopes

unitednuclear.com

78 pointsyesenadam37 comments

I remember coming across this site when I was a kid and learning about who Bob Lazaar the owner was. Good times.

I still remember the "Got Uranium?" title with the guy raising his eyebrows. Definitely felt weird/awesome to order from a site like that as a kid haha.

Here's a video of a real one

https://youtu.be/wTI1lICFTA0

Looks like a good randomness source

Image intensifiers are really awesome. Microchannel plate CRTs use the same technology and allowed capturing single high speed events on film before digital oscilloscopes.

They are difficult to beat with modern technology (CMOS sensor) because they are much lower power than equivalent digital system, and have no latency. Think night vision goggles using 9V alkaline battery..

Telescope cameras typically only use CMOS sensors, why aren't image intensifiers used there?

Image intensifier is better for real time video, but is noisy compared with still images taken with long exposure cooled CMOS sensors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZD32Sm3Xwo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di-rjUrWvnk

Youtube recommended the following video after watching the above. Pretty neat to see the paths of the charged particles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiscokCGOhs&ab_channel=Cloud...

That's insanely cool. I want one of these at home. I could watch it for hours. A spinthariscope too!

I want a Zero Blaster gun, that shoots fog rings! How does that work?! Doesn't mention what kind of power supply it uses. "Additional fluid is available if your a maniac and need to shoot the gun more than 25,000 times."

https://unitednuclear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&c...

it just takes AAs or AAAs for the smoke evaporator, the ring function is simple enough-

cylindrical chamber at front of device is where the magic happens- rubber diaphragm at the back, small-ish hole at the front (hole is roughly half the radius of the chamber)

holding the handletrigger fills the chamber with smoke, so that you can see the ring at all..

pulling the trigger results in a flat piece of plastic lightly thunking against a rubber diaphragm (black plastic and green diaphram in the image), sending forward the ring

you can also find much larger air vortex cannon 'bazookas' that lack the smoke function but are large enough to send farts and disturb paperwork across the room

I remember listening to the Art Bell episode with Bob Lazar, late at night with the lights out.

Wait, the aliens guy?

That is correct.

Well that's interesting.

I've met him in person. During the short time they had a store front in Michigan I went in and he was just sitting there manning the register. He showed off the 500 mW infrared laser they had in the store front for sale (powered it up without water cooling briefly). He also let me walk around in the back of the store with bins of Thorium chunks just sitting around. Was a very interesting place. I bought beyond the legal limit of a certain oxidizer and paid cash for it lol. (To be clear the law is to not sell beyond a certain amount, not to not buy it.) Makes sense why it got closed down.

Related from the past:

United Nuclear Scientific Equipment and Supplies - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24241180 - Aug 2020 (22 comments)

Best toy store ever. - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1595128 - Aug 2010 (2 comments)

Inspired by today's https://xkcd.com/2568/

And now they will make bank…

What does that mean?

That thousands of HN visitors are going to buy one.

The cheaper model sold out in the past 13 hours

Good for them, UN is a cool small biz.

Would one of these make a decent random source if you could find them for cheap?

Setting aside cool factor, practically speaking, Johnson noise does just as well and is so cheap it comes with every electronic component you can buy.

"releasing Alpha Particles traveling at over 20,000 miles per hour"

Way over.

OK, how far Way over?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_particle#Energy_and_abso...: “With a typical kinetic energy of 5 MeV; the speed of emitted alpha particles is 15,000 km/s”

    15,000 km/s ÷ 20,000 miles/hour
  = 15 km/s ÷ 20 miles/hour
  ≈ 15 km/s ÷ 32 km/hour
  = 15 × 3,600 ÷ 32
  ≈ 1,600

(The kinetic energy of these alpha particles may be a bit lower or higher)

Ha! You had me at finding the 15,000 km/s, but the 1,600X ... [chef's kiss] -- excellent!

Wow, that name sounds all wrong, "spinthariscope". It should be "spinth_i_roscope" or "spinth_e_roscope" (from Greek σπινθήρ, "spark", probably transliterated as "spinther", given how other Greek words are transliterated). But, wikipedia has an article on it with that spelling so I guess it's legit.

Speaking of radioactive sources surprisingly used for casual activities, I liked this video from Applied Science guy on record(the music kind) static removers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBHIp967TD8

Polonium!

Interesting 14 minute video that shows what it looks like and explains early radiation detectors

https://youtu.be/Hyr9-uVxQKc

Instructables guide to building one:

https://www.instructables.com/Pocket-Size-Spinthariscope/

video of one in action

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iwRbIMpPMs

> makes this Canadian ore very unique in its chemical composition

Are there other thorium ores that are only a bit unique in their composition?

Also, you can buy little tritium glow sticks on Amazon. Highly recommended. Our kids love them.

Can you give an example link? All I seem to find offered is tritium gun sights.

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