Beware! Deadly X-RAY Radiation - Vacuum Relay

This vacuum relay is a lot more dangerous than it first appears! When the contacts are close enough for cold cathode electron emission, this high vacuum contactor produces huge amounts of deadly x-rays. In fact, the ionizing radiation dose is well over 10 orders stronger then my other natural radioactive isotopes. So I urge you to be careful and excessively diligent regarding the dangers of your high voltage experiments!!!

[spacecase]

Thank you for sharing. I don't think many people suspected it could be that dangerous

[simoncleret]

See, this is why I get worried if you don't post anything for a while, lol.

[poly_hexamethyl]

Well, normally that relay would be enclosed in a metal cabinet in a transmitter or something, so the X-rays wouldn't be a problem. But they could be if you had to open the cabinet to service it with the power on. In that case it would help to have some sort of shield around the relay.

[failforwardresearch]

and Nam is worried about microwaves...

[SaveTheFuture]

Yeah, vacuum with a lot of voltage and metal electrodes can produce a lot of x-rays. Good thing I considered this before activating the cathode ray tube I got for an experiment and got some leaded plexiglass first. The unfortunate thing is I've seen a number of demonstrations on cold cathode ray tubes being performed by teachers with no apparent shielding.

[clavo]

This is an amazing revelation! Thank you! Wish I had something to do with that. Still; very interesting to know that "radio active" can be man made. You did mention Gamma rays; did the vacuum tube deliver all of the kinds of radiation as from the natural minerals; like Gama, beta; X and others."

[burneye]

your personal sacrifices to the scientific community will not be forgotten!
Now stop giving yourself Cancer!

[mikelee]

I am using 1J29B subminiature tubes that have a 1.2v filament voltage in guitar effects distortion pedals as a diode for clipping to make distortion. Because of the low filament voltage of 1.2v these and a few others work great. Recently I purchased 100 Sylvania 5642 tubes for $20.00. But their is a warning about possible Xray dangers. From what I can gather this is only at the high voltages like 25kv. I am only running at up to 1.2 usually. I am experimenting with overvolting the the 1J29B tubes at up to 5 volts. Want to do the same with the 5642.
Am I correct in believing the 5642 is safe at low voltage of 1 to 5 volts?

[burneye]

Love you brother! Now please 🙏 step away from the cancer causing materials

[photonik-luminescence]

Wow, thats alot of x-rays for 25kV source. Its scary !

[TrevorR]

I came here wondering if I was being exposed to radiation while listening to my 1950s tube amp record player. I can imagine it's probably safe since it dosent run at 25, 000v.

[KohniHart]

00:00 (putting timestamps lets you enable video player because youtube devs are lazy-asses that cant just add that feature)