BEFORE THE EARLY years of the 20th Century, if you wanted to tell the time in the dark you had a choice: commission a montre à tact or a repeater from a posh watchmaker like that nice M Bréguet. As the name suggests, you felt the time on the dial of a montre à tact, whereas a repeater chimed the hours and minutes. Neither was cheap or easy to make. So once Marie and Pierre Curie isolated the glow-in-the-dark wonder-element radium, watch and clockmakers (car and aircraft instrument manufacturers, too) were eager to put the new substance to work. 'Does your watch tell the time in the dark?' asked US firm Ingersoll before extolling the advantages of its new radium-lumed Radiolite watches.
Radium-226 on its own isn't much use as a paint for watch dials and hands; it's simply not bright enough. But add some zinc sulphide and a solvent carrier and you've got a paintable compound that'll glow happily for perhaps 1015 years. The radiation from the radium slowly breaks down the zinc sulphide, eventually dimming the glow to nothing.
Denne historien er fra September 2023-utgaven av Octane.
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Denne historien er fra September 2023-utgaven av Octane.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
Jem Marsh
The hard-bitten Marcos boss was driven like few others and never knew when he was beaten. Thankfully
Vandamm House
A Mid-Century Modernist masterpiece that was immortalised on celluloid - despite never actually existing
Making light
Alfa Romeo's post-war renaissance began with the 1900 saloon - and matured with Zagato's featherweight coupé version, as Jay Harvey discovers
FULL OF EASTERN PROMISE
Is burgeoning classic car interest in the Middle East good for the global classic market? Nathan Chadwick investigates
Before the beginning
This rare Amazon Green pre-production Range Rover is Velar chassis number 4. James Elliott charts its historically revealing factory restoration
Ben Cussons
As the outgoing chairman of the Royal Automobile Club hands on to his successor, Robert Coucher quizzes him about the evolution of this great British institution
BULLDOG & THE PUPPIES
We gather five motoring masterpieces by avant-garde designer William Towns - and drive all of them
Below the tip of the Audrain iceberg
As the Audrain organisation grows, we take a look behind the scenes at the huge car collection that feeds it
Flying the Scottish flag
Young Ecurie Ecosse driver Chloe Grant gets to grips with the Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar C-type at Goodwood. Matthew Hayward is Octane's witness
WITHOUT FURTHER ADO
Audi Tradition has unveiled the Auto Union Type 52 Schnellsportwagen - only 90 years since it was designed. Glen Waddington takes an exclusive ride with Hans-Joachim Stuck