Why do alarm clarks have nuclear material?

[nellanella]

Are they supposed to trigger a mini-nuke to wake you up or something? lol

[DrNewcenstein]

Radium makes the numbers and hands glow in the dark.

[nellanella]

Originally posted by DrNewcenstein:

Radium makes the numbers and hands glow in the dark.

Ah that makes sense. Thanks

[Out Of Bubblegum]

Maybe an itsy-bitsy-teenie-weenie-yellow-polka-dot fusion core? So they never need a battery?

[JOW]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_clock

[SpaceMan62]

Still doesn't explain why the stuff's in board games, though

[GoreTiger]

Originally posted by SpaceMan62:

Still doesn't explain why the stuff's in board games, though

The pieces likely glow.

[Ben Argo]

It's also a criticism of how widespread the use of nuclear material had become in the Fallout world prior to that fateful day when everything got nuked.

It's pretty careless how they use, abuse and dispose of nuclear materials. Barrels of toxic radioactive sludge dumped in pools if water or buried in the background. Stored in sveds it in sewage tunnels.

[Ihateeverybody]

Originally posted by DrNewcenstein:

Radium makes the numbers and hands glow in the dark.

I learned this from a Bloom County Comic back in the 80s when Oliver scraped some big # of watches for the radioactive material to build a nuclear bomb for his schools science fair. I loved the Principles reation...."Okay Kids, time for a firedrill".

I loved that Cartoon. Things went downhill with Outland (Still good but ...Too many old characters kept showing up and taking over. I liked Ronald Anne.)

[DouglasGrave]

Originally posted by Ben Argo:

It's also a criticism of how widespread the use of nuclear material had become in the Fallout world prior to that fateful day when everything got nuked.

It also references the real world, where radium paint was used for illuminates watch faces and the like, even to the point that you had workers painting the watches pointing their paintbrushes by licking them.

It turns out the human body can even treat radium like calcium and deposit it in your bones. That kind of sucks if your employers care more about fancy watches and are happy to pretend it's safe.

[DrNewcenstein]

Backinnaday, it was believed small amounts of radium, as used in watches and clocks, was safe.

Also, there was a restaurant in NYC with a swimming pool full of mercury, where patrons experienced the novelty of walking through it fully clothed (to remove accidental food/drink stains) and yet emerge dry.

At one time, cigarettes were prescribed by doctors.

And the swimming pool on the Titanic still has water in it.

[Ben Argo]

Originally posted by DrNewcenstein:

And the swimming pool on the Titanic still has water in it.

I actually checked to see if there was some cool science going on, like the different chemicals in the pool altering its density vs the seawater or something.

I'm kind of sad it's just a joke.

[Haerken]

Let's not forget red stoneware plates were glazed with a radioactive substance, only because it was a red glaze. Some large water jugs were made with a radioactive material to energize the water before you drank it. The luminous paint that didn't need light exposure to charge it to glow. The Coleman lantern white gas mantle bags are radioactive. The shoe stores had x-ray machines you could stand on and look into your feet in real time. The pitchblend that is scattered around the USA. I feel cheated in game when I scrap a red plate and don't get radioactive material.

[mister_lobos]

we still make products that cause cancer and birth defects and sell them.. and sadly people just don't care..

i work in a place that sells phone chargers (with about 9,000 other things, NOT walmart) the power outlet or part that plugs into the car says right one it "warning cancer and reproductive harm" or just "may cause cancer and birth defects in pregnant women" i show people this and they just say "so??" and buy it anyway.

as for the clocks, i wouldn't be surprised at all if they would (in theory) have nuclear batteries in them.. they don't have cords to plug them in do they?? (then again, does anything in fallout?)

[Tesityr]

If I may pop in, it does seem like anything 'shiny' in the game had to do with radioactive material (the comment on the proliferation of it before The Big One is very apt) - heck eventually they made their DRINKS glow!

[CRIMSON KING]

Originally posted by DrNewcenstein:

Backinnaday, it was believed small amounts of radium, as used in watches and clocks, was safe.

Also, there was a restaurant in NYC with a swimming pool full of mercury, where patrons experienced the novelty of walking through it fully clothed (to remove accidental food/drink stains) and yet emerge dry.

At one time, cigarettes were prescribed by doctors.

And the swimming pool on the Titanic still has water in it.

id say its safe too if you were gonna buy one cause of it.