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New Light Source Lasts 15 Years Without a Recharge [w/Pics]

ecoble.com — How about a glowing light source that lasts for 15 years instead of the typical 15 minutes of a glowstick? GlowPaint ’s newest product does just that and is also non-toxic and inexpensive and doesn’t require a recharge via solar or electrical sources for its entire lifespan. According to the company, “This has potential to save billions in energy...

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  • doctechnical, on 05/20/2008, -3/+132A new application of tritium lighting which has been around for quite a while. And of course there's the fun of telling people the reason it glows is because it's radioactive.
    Unfortunately the NRC is rather hard-nosed about using tritium lighting for "novelty" uses, so I wouldn't expect to see this on US shelves any time soon. Too bad, it looks like fun.
    • publiclurker, on 05/20/2008, -0/+16A few years ago they were selling key chains with a tritium light in them in the UK. Some were available on eBay in the US. A google search might still show up something.
    • Namelessthinker, on 05/20/2008, -0/+17Tritium is quite expensive too.
    • choopie911, on 05/20/2008, -1/+10Any info on why they're so hardassed about public novelty use?
      • Mootabolife, on 05/20/2008, -0/+19They give you superpowers.
        • vuke69, on 05/20/2008, -1/+17You will all bow to cancer man!
        • isaactwito, on 05/20/2008, -7/+2dude, vuke69, nice x-files reference. took me a little off guard.
      • PhotonCannon, on 05/20/2008, -4/+1Wikipedia ftw.

        Large amounts of tritium can be used in nuclear weapons.
        • austin006, on 05/20/2008, -0/+10heyyyyy
          nuclear weapons are NOT novelty use
        • Thundercat1971, on 05/20/2008, -0/+3awesome, a nuclear missile made from old t-shirts!
      • CharlesMay, on 05/20/2008, -0/+4Probably because they have to put a lot of regulations in place to keep a bunch of rednecks from painting their entire trucks with this *****. But it would make for some cool pen stripes.
        • Fracture98, on 05/20/2008, -1/+4You either mean pinstripes, or you are one of the rednecks of whom you speak. A Jiffy Marker is not a car detailing tool.
      • cawpin, on 05/20/2008, -0/+3There is a fixed amount of tritium. It isn't something you can manufacture, at least not yet.
    • BTraina, on 05/20/2008, -0/+5So all those models wearing the stuff are going to die soon?
      • doctechnical, on 05/20/2008, -0/+10No, this stuff is very safe. The very very small amount of radioactivity that the tritium has produces is pretty much trapped in the glass/polymer, and it's enough to energize some phosphor into glowing but not much else.
        I've had some tritium keychain fobs (mentioned above) for some years, I also have a geiger counter - the fobs can't make the counter's needle twitch.
      • pdbailey, on 05/20/2008, -1/+1It is likely tritium

        http://ie.lbl.gov/toi/nuclide.asp?iZA=10003

        which only has a 18 keV beta particle. This is very easy to shield so long as it is not in the air. This webpage compares it to the high energy electrons in your tv (betas are electrons with lots of energy):

        http://www.theexitstore.com/exit_sign_info/facts-a ...

    • gluesniffined, on 05/20/2008, -3/+5My night sites on a couple of my firearms are tritium. Nothing new folks.
    • teaBagger, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2they use titrium because if you accidently swallow it, it is the most tasty of all the radioactive isotopes... that and its chock full of minerals.
    • somaddict, on 05/20/2008, -4/+0You can buy this stuff here: http://www.glopaint.com/
      • JDRay, on 05/20/2008, -1/+7"Glow-In-The-Dark Spray Paints!
        Each time the item you have painted is exposed to light for 15 minutes the item will Glow-In-The-Dark. "

        They say they have "Litroenergy" paint, but none of the products they list for sale use it evidently, as it all says "non-radioactive" and, as quoted above, you have to expose it to light, meaning it's phosphorescent instead.
    • havokzero, on 05/20/2008, -2/+2This revolutionary new technology could help millions of morbidly obese men find their (glowing) genitals.
    • ChloeMS, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1According to NASA, (http://www.createthefuturecontest.com/pages/view/e ... this is non-toxic, so it can not be a tritium based product.
  • Titanick, on 05/20/2008, -12/+6cue x-files music
    • npg6913, on 05/20/2008, -3/+1cue random lines containing"stfu," or " Go back to trolling youtube"
  • slothchunk, on 05/20/2008, -4/+89remember how movies from the 80's portrayed the future? Turns out they're right.
  • TJ11240, on 05/20/2008, -9/+16I think its the same thing that makes watches glow green
    • erieslabhunter, on 05/20/2008, -9/+1My watch always needs to "recharge", according to this it needs no such recoup time.
    • bjornski, on 05/20/2008, -2/+14Radium was formerly used in self-luminous paints for watches, nuclear panels, aircraft switches, clocks, and instrument dials. More than 100 former watch dial painters who used their lips to shape the paintbrush died from the radiation from the radium that had become stored in their bones. Soon afterward, the adverse effects of radioactivity became widely known. Radium was still used in dials as late as the 1950s. Although tritium's beta radiation is potentially dangerous if ingested, it has replaced radium in these applications.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium
    • austin006, on 05/20/2008, -6/+3that reminds me of the Bloom county where oliver made a nuclear bomb from thousands of watches he scraped the glow stuff off of

      10 points for anyone who knows what im talking about
      • directrix13, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1I love Bloom County. I wish they would come out with the complete anthology. Billy and the Boingers rule.
    • Stroggoth, on 05/20/2008, -2/+5Let me just say that I know someone personally who died of cancer of the wrist. They wore a glowing watch on that wrist for some time before the cancer struck, and he suspected it was what caused it. The cancer was very aggressive and he died young.

      So, NO, I won't be buying any radioactive microspheres.
      • RussellDovey, on 05/20/2008, -0/+12Could have been one of those old uranium watches. They used to make those. Glowing paint on the watch dial wouldn't have done jack *****; he'd have needed to eat the watch.
      • chenley1, on 05/20/2008, -0/+12What time did he die?
        • wild, on 05/20/2008, -0/+6wrong, but funny. so damned fun.
        • theaceoffire, on 05/20/2008, -0/+3We don't know, no one was Watching.
          It was an unTimely death.
      • rspeed, on 05/20/2008, -0/+6Cancer of the wrist? Last time I checked the wrist isn't an organ. Do you mean skin cancer with a tumor on his wrist?
    • Suricou, on 05/20/2008, -0/+6The modern glowing watch dials use a chemical that converts light to chemical energy and vice versa. I don't know how it works beyond that - exposing it to light charges it up, and in the dark it emits light again. Entirely safe in every way.

      Old glowing watch dials did use radium. Alpha decay though - no risk to the user unless they open it up. Lots of risk to the people who made them.
      • erieslabhunter, on 05/20/2008, -0/+0Thank you, I guess by being dugg down it was just a sign that I am not as old as some others here. Scary risks though either way.
      • GraveyBrains, on 05/21/2008, -0/+0Eh? Radium is a gamma emitter. You can tell the radium watches from the tritium, the plastic over the numbers rots after a while from the ionisation.

        You can also do a search for the radium girls and find out just how bad it was to be a watch painter.
    • raw10, on 05/20/2008, -1/+1One of the most common uses of tritium (other than in thermonuclear weapons) is in "self luminous" exit signs.
  • xtmno3, on 05/20/2008, -1/+205Looks like I finally figured out what color to paint the outside of my house.
    • badassninja, on 05/20/2008, -0/+16Dude, all thru out Jr. High I wanted to grow up to own a car that was painted with something like this.
      • Gregbertt, on 05/20/2008, -0/+4I wonder if I could get my dentist to paint some of this stuff on my teeth.

        "Hi! How are you doing! Nice to meet you!"
        • UNL1M1T3D, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2"Get away from me freak."
          -Girls
        • diggimator, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2The next logical step after teeth whitening, just like how the 5 bladed razor was an inevitability.
    • mysedai, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1How much do you think you'd have to pay a home owners' association to mandate that everybody paint their house with that paint?
      The radioactive glowing paint would ensure that you never have to hang Christmas lights or buy your kids a Halloween mask ever again!
  • bicyclethief, on 05/20/2008, -9/+2It may make you sterile but, hey, you'll not stub your toe in the middle of the night again for the next 15 years.
  • lkmbrd, on 05/20/2008, -19/+9Will it blend?
  • Lane, on 05/20/2008, -3/+50Lan parties will never be the same again.
    • WWWoody, on 05/20/2008, -2/+10I...I don't want people to see me when I'm lanning. The intimacy between myself and the glow of my monitor can't be intruded on by this, this "tritium light."
  • Shadowgamers, on 05/20/2008, -7/+28But I don't want rave parties to last 15 years :[[[
  • blitz718, on 05/20/2008, -14/+23Mmmmmmmmm, cancer
    • Kronk42583, on 05/20/2008, -3/+2where's that pussy cancer!!! c'mon tugger! Russel Crowe fighting round the world!
  • qbthemc, on 05/20/2008, -17/+0Boring. Its not you its me.
  • SilverNakamura, on 05/20/2008, -9/+6This sounds way too good to be true, there is obviously some downside to this. Rest assured you sure as hell won't be using it in your house instead of light bulbs if the electric company has anything to say about it.
    • ddawggin, on 05/20/2008, -3/+4http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2007/0200074.htm ...

      Theres your downside.
      • SilverNakamura, on 05/20/2008, -1/+3You break that bad-boy and you're screwed
        • jmp478, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1The phosphor is encapsulated by the little micro particles which are filled with radioactive gas. So you might have a hard time breaking those open... unless you have a really tiny hammer
        • rasmasyean, on 05/20/2008, -0/+0Or you blow it up with TNT. Throw it in a fire.
      • jwoulf, on 05/20/2008, -0/+3That is NOT a down side. These devices are completely safe. My wristwatch contains 25mCi of tritium, and will provide me with an easily readable watch face for the next 20 years. (thank you, Israel)
    • choopie911, on 05/20/2008, -0/+11It's made from owl tears.
    • badassninja, on 05/20/2008, -1/+1They won't have jack ***** to say about it.
    • tetsuwan, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2It's probably very good for what it can do, i.e. make things visible in the dark. It's probably quite poor as an office lamp, though.
    • doctechnical, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1The downside is it's going to be expensive as hell. Tritium ain't cheap.
  • adrames, on 05/20/2008, -3/+9Where to buy?
  • drakethegreat, on 05/20/2008, -5/+96I'm scared that this will become popular on cars and then not only will people blast rap but they will have glowing SUVs that piss you off even more at 3 AM.
    • isaactwito, on 05/20/2008, -1/+10I thought you said cans. Wouldn't that be cool, glowing soda cans.
      • acetv, on 05/20/2008, -2/+5Those were the first kind of cans you thought of?
      • Duositex, on 05/20/2008, -11/+4It's WRITTEN. You didn't think he "said" anything. That doesn't even make sense.
    • trixterIreland, on 05/20/2008, -1/+7well a glowing SUV makes it harder to hide from the cops when they are doing stupid stuff and someone finally calls them :)
      • DeFex, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2and its harder to run from them when your pants are falling down.
    • wild, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1I cant imagine this would be legal to do.
    • screamthenrun, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2I'm more afraid that someone's going to paint the walls of my room with this stuff... it's hard enough to get to sleep knowing that there are monsters in my closet and under my bed :(
  • AlJensen, on 05/20/2008, -6/+0hope it lights up the room a lot better than the pictures show
    • choopie911, on 05/20/2008, -0/+3I guess you just looked at the pretty pictures, because that's not the intended function at all.
  • branndon, on 05/20/2008, -6/+75Ah crap... now the ricers will have something new to annoy me with.
    • directrix13, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2Testicular cancer from sitting on glow in the dark seats?
    • wild, on 05/20/2008, -0/+8Uncle Ben is going to kick your ass.
  • Armor1901, on 05/20/2008, -6/+73Digg reminds me of those make up commercials where the product supposedly gets rid of wrinkles. Every few weeks or so a company says they found a revolutionary way of eliminating all wrinkles, then a few weeks later, a new product comes out claiming the same.
    Every few weeks on Digg, AIDS, cancer, and the energy problem gets solved.
    Then, a few weeks later, it gets solved again!
    • Haoie, on 05/20/2008, -2/+1You're right. You'd swear that if these inventions were great and have a huge profit potential, the companies won't go telling everyone on the net about it.
  • trotskyist, on 05/20/2008, -4/+97This has to cause cancer...
    • PhotonCannon, on 05/20/2008, -0/+13The beta radiation is supposedly absorbed by the phosphorus before it escapes.
      • apmtt, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1Yep, that's right. I've had one of these things on my keys for quite a while now.
      • learn2, on 05/20/2008, -0/+0i sometimes find phosphorus outside of my home in the dirt/grass at nighttime, it constantly glows but i figured having absorbed the sun's energy the entire day is what caused the glow. Try to look for some outside.
    • ArandiaT, on 05/20/2008, -2/+4You see, we won't find that out for another 20 years, after it's already ubiquitous and shortened the lifespan of an entire generation.

      Afterwards, it'll be banned throughout the developed world, but they'll still use it in the poorer countries because it'll be cheaper than safe lighting
      • jwoulf, on 05/20/2008, -8/+3Tritium light sources are completely safe.

        Please go die of AIDS.
    • Hassassin, on 05/20/2008, -1/+2Well it sure as hell won't cure it.
    • FeartheKnighted, on 05/20/2008, -0/+3Or...it cures cancer!
  • choopie911, on 05/20/2008, -6/+2Holy *****.... thats all I can say.
  • machocheese34, on 05/20/2008, -2/+11I want that bike
  • wwnexc, on 05/20/2008, -1/+9Is that similar to Tritium? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium%29
    Both last about 10-15 years, can glow green and yellow, etc...
    • vuke69, on 05/20/2008, -0/+12It IS tritium. The innovative part is them managing to put it in the center of polymer micro-spheres.
      • Suricou, on 05/20/2008, -0/+5Thus solving the annoying habbit of lighter-than-air gasses to float away.
  • iDoraemon, on 05/20/2008, -2/+18The catch is that it turns us into zombies.

    I for one welcome our future zombie overlords
    • blast_flame, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2Zombies? No.It will actually give everyone a disease which the only cure for is to become a cyborg. As such we must roll out this product as quickly as possible.
    • Jektal, on 05/20/2008, -0/+3Well, at least they'll be easy to see...
    • Jeffool, on 05/20/2008, -0/+4Pft, glowing zombies? How the hell are we going to have a zombie apocalypse if they all glow? I mean, just shoot about a foot above the glow. How hard is that? Bah. This could ruin all my hard work and preparation!

      I may as donate my copy of The Zombie Survival Guide on to the library or something...
  • xdevit, on 05/20/2008, -2/+3Isn't this the same stuff that was labeled very toxic about 10 years ago ? Causing alot of people to get sick ?
  • phr3akster, on 05/20/2008, -5/+2Thats probably the coolest ***** I've ever seen.
  • speezer, on 05/20/2008, -3/+55They should put that stuff in breast implants.
  • sherbertbones, on 05/20/2008, -6/+1And it runs completely on fecal matter. Don't flush ya toilets!
  • jtscira, on 05/20/2008, -3/+44If McCain wins the election everything will be glowing that color.
    • DieselGrunge, on 05/20/2008, -2/+1Hmmm, and what color will everything glow if Obama wins?
      • skyfox2k, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1Definately not 'working class' white unfortunately.
    • DharmaTurtle, on 05/21/2008, -0/+1I'm an Obama fan, BUT WHY DID THIS TURN POLITICAL?
      Oh well, funny... sighs.
  • playuhh, on 05/20/2008, -2/+3Re-Usable Glowsticks and Apparel FTW.
    This story makes me wanna hit the clubs.
  • BobScratchit, on 05/20/2008, -3/+8It's being worked on by top men......who?.......TOP men.
    • tetsuwan, on 05/20/2008, -0/+3Desperately looking for complimentary BOTTOM men now ...
    • Canadian0207, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1you guys are so gay
  • stack3r, on 05/20/2008, -5/+5remember a article about the same stuff mid last year?, then posted about 30 times since then.

    What happened to digg :(
    • austin006, on 05/20/2008, -0/+0yes
    • Orion682, on 05/20/2008, -0/+3I was about to say the same thing. And every ***** time the comments are always "OMFG THIS IS SO COOL AND NEW" even though the tech has actually been around for a while no, and no one cares...
    • dha07030, on 05/20/2008, -1/+2New users who dont spend all day on the internet.
  • captaindoobers, on 05/20/2008, -0/+7from wiki answers:

    Tritium lighting is made using glass tubes with a phosphor layer in them and tritium (a hydrogen isotope) gas inside the tube. Such a tube is known as a "gaseous tritium light source" (GTLS).

    Because tritium in particular is an integral part of thermonuclear devices (though in quantities several thousand times larger than that in a keychain), devices containing tritium are considered dual-use technology in the U.S.A., and are therefore illegal for export. However, they are widely available in the U.K., most of Europe (some countries like Belgium have outlawed them however), Asia and Australia.

    Tritium devices can be purchased in the UK and Australia, but are illegal for import to the United States, however they are available in the US as gunsights and for military applications.

    UK Source
    http://www.crazyaboutgadgets.com/detail.asp?ID=371 (no longer on site)

    AU Source
    http://www.kitbag.com.au/prod849.htm

    USA Source (Military Personnel only)
    http://www.ameriglo.net/tactical_dev.htm
    • slotimus, on 05/20/2008, -1/+1Whatchu talkin about (Military Personnel only)... I have trits in my Glock 22 and I am nothing close to Military or Law Enforcement.
  • Mikhail101, on 05/20/2008, -2/+12I wanna buy this stuff and then drop some acid
    • cheesenuggets1, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2Do it in reverse, much more fun. Have you ever dropped acid and wandered around a Walmart?
  • Slybri, on 05/20/2008, -1/+6Be cool to get a tattoo with that stuff. Some dork would do himself up like Tron.
    • krisscofield, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1Hurry up and inform Tron Guy! Wouldn't want to see him get one upped.
  • Barackalypse, on 05/20/2008, -4/+5Buried, come back and post when this invention is commercially available for me to purchase, otherwise its like all the other wonderful things I read about and years later still can't buy.
  • digitalmischief, on 05/20/2008, -2/+1...and I thought it was bad when the lights come on after last call...
  • control98408, on 05/20/2008, -2/+3So that's what Tony Stark built in that cave.
  • krevenJB, on 05/20/2008, -1/+1These people really may be bright after all.
  • techfire, on 05/20/2008, -1/+2NASA tech brief on "Litroenergy": http://www.createthefuturecontest.com/pages/view/e ...
  • SenorGeltabz, on 05/20/2008, -1/+2Ha, next time I go to see a friend dj. I'm going to get something made and mess with all the people rolling and/or just twasted.
  • killtrocity, on 05/20/2008, -4/+0Jesus Christ it's a miracle!
  • fuzzybeard, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2Won't the Tritium decay into Helium-3 relatively fast?
    • fishknife, on 05/20/2008, -0/+5With a half-life of ~12 years, not really.
      • Andyschism, on 05/20/2008, -1/+4Did someone say Half-Life?
      • fuzzybeard, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1I *did* say "relatively." Now if they incorporated palladium into the design to filter the Helium-3...
  • icemanex, on 05/20/2008, -2/+0The question i would like to ask-does it give off white light?
    That dull green glow is pretty much useless no matter how long it lasts
    • fishknife, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1The tritium releases beta radiation which energizes the phosphor which produces the light. The light color is determined by the phosphor being used and different phosphors or phosphor blends will yield different colors. I have not seen this technology used with a white spectrum phosphor blend -- I'm not sure it has the energy output required, it is pretty dim.
    • Suricou, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2No. In theory you could use an improved phosphor mix to get white, but I think it would result in light too dim to be comfortable. A dull green glow is far from usless though - road safety, emergency lighting, illuminated signs...
  • Stonekeeper, on 05/20/2008, -0/+11Imagine what the Tron Guy could do with this!
  • fishknife, on 05/20/2008, -1/+3To the people who are wanting some GTLS products... one company did manufacture keychain glowsticks with this technology though I think they've stopped production now which is a shame. You can still find some of them online though, google "nite glowring" or check out http://www.outdoorgb.com/p/nite_glowring_safety_ma ...

    If you live in the US and don't have a friend outside the country you're probably out of luck because as someone said before the importation of tritium containing devices is frowned upon since tritium is used in the manufacture of thermonuclear bombs or some BS.

    To those interested, the green ones are the brightest, then pink, then blue. I have a green one on my keys and it's extremely useful if you drop your keys on the ground at night or need a little bit of illumination to find a keyhole or light switch. None are bright enough to read small print as in books, however. Mine is over 3 years old and is still as bright as the first day I got it.
    • killtrocity, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1But if the book pages were coated with it...
      • tetsuwan, on 05/20/2008, -0/+1That would be a really expensive book, yes.
    • Suricou, on 05/20/2008, -0/+4Yes, if someone where to buy several million keychain lights, smash them open and collect the tritium they would have one of the ingredients needed to produce a hydrogen bomb. They would still need an ordinary fission bomb made of uranium or plutonium, and the small army of highly specialised engineers needed to figure out how it all fits together.
  • shawnanigans, on 05/20/2008, -6/+4Tritium? Come on.
    Up Next: A brand new material that could save you thousands in heating bills, it's known as "asbestos."
    This isn't new, this is using an old in a new and potentially harmful way. It's like using wood to heat your house to reduce oil consumption and forgetting that burnng wood can be worse for the environment than burning oil.
    • jwoulf, on 05/20/2008, -1/+3Tritium light sources are completely safe.
    • eastlondoner, on 05/20/2008, -2/+1Actually burning wood to heat your house is environmentally friendly.

      It's completely carbon neutral and as long as the wood is taken from SUSTAINABLE SOURCES it is many times better than petro/gas sources.
    • MrSkrilla, on 05/20/2008, -0/+2WTF? Burning wood is green and sustainable
  • jhirsch4, on 05/20/2008, -0/+3neverending raves

    sweet

    :/
  • cryonix, on 05/20/2008, -0/+3Now that joke Kevin made about using a giant glow stick to light that city can finally come true.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJEpU0b-55c
  • jwoulf, on 05/20/2008, -1/+8My hatred for those who have regulated tritium here knows no bounds... A hotel I was at last weekend had 30Ci tritium signs in every ***** hallway. And yet all I can legally ***** own is a goddamn tritium watch containing 25mCi.
  • luckyguy2000, on 05/20/2008, -0/+4the radioactive attribute of this will prevent it from being successful. ppl are scared of that and most of'em dont have a clue what beta rays are let alone that this cant make a mushroom cloud :D
  • woofers07, on 05/20/2008, -3/+3The amount of simple but very useful applications for this is actually quite impressive.
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