iwc3

Thank-you Mark.

Sure will. I'm doing tests with Strontium Aluminate until the Zinc Sulfide arrives. My problem with strontium aluminate is that I am finding my "base material" of Aluminum Oxide blocks out the glow of the strontium aluminate. I have to use more of the strontium, but when I do, the product glows way too long. I'm hoping the use of Zinc Sulfide will allow me to use the larger quantity and the glow will more approximate the short duration glow of the "old stuff". This thread has been very interesting, tapping into your members chemical knowledge. Iwc3

Looks like that is what I need. I live in Flagstaff, AZ. I just ordered some. Thank-you String Junky. Iwc3 Hi Swansont, Ya I think I will try the straight Zinc Sulphide. I routinely use Strontium Aluminate by the trade name Super-LumiNova™. I buy that from Switzerland for $40/gram. It glows too well for my purposes with these old rolex dials. thanks, Iwc3

Thank-you John and Stringjunky. I've learned quite a bit already. Maybe the phosphor was Zinc Sulphide. Now I'm trying to find some "white" Zinc Sulphide powder that will allow me flexibility in making my beige to yellow beige mixes. Also, I have noticed when I crush my phosphors compounds down to smaller than 30-40 microns, they lose some of their glow potential. iwc3

Wow, what a piece of history, Back in the 70s in watch repair school, they gave us a kit to paint indices. It was something like that. It makes sense to me now what "Phi for all" said about mixing the two materials. I could see how the Radium or Tritium would assist the phosphorescent material to continue glowing as well. Very interesting. My task at hand now is to repair the dial indices with a mixture of "non-glowing" materials that look like aged tritium (this I have done) and to also blend in a short glowing light charged compound, much like strontium aluminate that I use now, but something that has a very short glow time. Any suggestions on that?

Radium was used from the 1910s to about 1960. Rolex used it til 1960 in their watches, at which time they switched to tritium. I recall hearing about 007 and his watch. It was definitely an old Submariner. I think you're right about the geiger counter. There is a story about the "Radium Girls". Around 1917 in New Jersey a group of girls were hired to paint watch dials with radium. They were told it was harmless, and they routinely licked their brushes they used to apply it and some even had fun painting their teeth and showing off to their boyfriends their "glowing smiles". Many of them contracted radiation poisoning. Eventually there was a lawsuit on their behalf. I've worked on a lot of WWII watches and airplane clocks with radium applied to the dials. Do you think calcium sulfide or strontium sulfide might be compounds I could obtain and make into a fine powder to apply and give my dial numbers that "quick" and short lasting glow?

I'm a watchmaker who specializes in refinishing old and new dial adding luminescence to dial numbers and hands. Normally I use blends of strontium aluminate to make the dials glow. However, I have a question about a very old dial I am trying to repair. The dial was originally made with two glowing substances. One was tritium which has long ago lost its "glow". They also mixed the tritium with a phosphorescent material that absorbed light and glowed for a minute. I'm trying to identify the compound that glowed brightly after a charge and withing about 30 seconds lost most of its glow. I have heard watchmakers used Zinc Sulfide before what they use now. However, I don't think it was ZnS. I don't know enough about phosphorescent compounds to consider anything else. Here's the question I have: Is there a compound that upon having been "charged" in daylight or under fluorescent light, it glows brightly and quickly, within 30 seconds loses most of its glow? I uploaded a video of another dial just like the one I am trying to repair showing the "complete one" in daylight, and turning off the light to show how it glows but quickly diminishes. The video is of a 100% original dial that demonstrates how the old tritium no longer glows, but the phosphorescent material still works. Its a Rolex dial from the 60s. I am repairing another dial like it. The best we can figure is Rolex used "Tritium" for the main glow properties, and they used this Phosphorescent material to give the dial markers a "quick glow", but it didn't last long. Thanks for all your help. Kent IMG_68412.MOV