What are they?

[Owise Owera]

I?ve been hunting the same field for years and retrieved numerous items belonging to the inhabitants of this area, upstate N.Y. This time I thought about bringing along a metal detector to make a more thorough search for jewelry and colonial era coins. Sullivan campaigned right along this river, the Susquehanna. I detected the field for quite some time finding nothing. I noticed that the farmer added a few more feet to the edge of the cornfield and thought it a perfect opportunity to search before the other seekers from my area spotted it. These Green things caught my eye and the only explanation I got from a local historian is ?Oh those were dumped here by IBM back in the 40?s?. Okay, well, these were all that I found, clustered together in a two-foot area of soil about 50 yards from the riverbank. I personally can?t believe IBM would drive 30 miles to dump a handful of whatever these are in an open field. Any Ideas?

 

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[Bigcypresshunter]

This is just a wild guess. Shine a light on them at night and see if they are flourescent.

 

[hasbeen]

If they are made of a ceramic type material,my guess would be industrial tumbling media.

hasbeen

 

[Chagy]

I cant really tell by a picture,but If I have to take I wild guess I will go with JADE

let us know, good luck,

Chagy.......

 

[Owise Owera]

Well it is 8:55 pm Eastern time I placed one of them, infact I placed all of them on a light one at a time of course, and sure enough they lit right up. I added a picture.

 

[jeff of pa]

I believe they may be used on road signs,

and maby even Roads in some areas,

When the headlights hit them, they "Light the way"

Never seen any up close, so just a guess.

 

[Gypsy Heart]

IBM did make tons of different color chips, every shade imaginable ,when they were testing color options for their computers screens....would it have anything to do in that line ?

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Well it is 8:55 pm Eastern time I placed one of them, infact I placed all of them on a light one at a time of course, and sure enough they lit right up. I added a picture.

Owise, I am sorry, I just noticed this. I was just taking a wild guess. I am sometimes right. Owise, you need to put those in a container, do not handle them anymore. I remember seeing a story on TV about the poor people that worked in a flourescent factory in the 40,s. The same type and color used on old alarm clocks. The flourescent material could be radio-active and that could explain why it was dumped miles away in a farmers field. Please you need to find out. I am sorry if this is true. It probably takes years to cause any bodily harm, but you should not take any chances. Let us know.
Gypsy, maybe you can research this for him.

 

[DigEmAll]

Flourescent and radioactive are two different things.

Many things flouress that aren't raidoactive. A lightning bug flouresses, but isn't radioactive.

Many things are radioactive that do not give off any visible light. Uraninum is radioactive, but no light.

Some radioactive things do give off visible light though, such as tritium.

Basically, very basically...

Something that is flouresent only emits light when an outside energy source is applied. Electricity from a switch lights a flouresent light bulb, and electrical pulses from a lightningbug's brain light his butt.

Jalepenos aren't flouresent or radioactive, but sometimes light my butt.


Something that is radioactive is changing from one element into another element by losing part of it's atom, for example, plutonium turns into lead as it decays. Which part of the atom it loses determines which type of ray (Alpha, beta, gamma, X-ray) you get.

Wow... never thought nuclear physics would ever come up here on TN.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Flourescent and radioactive are two different things.


Dig, how are you.This is true. Also I know nothing about nuclear physics. And I am not trying to scare anyone. All I know is a TV program I watched where workers made flourescent material for alarm clocks. Around 1940 something they discovered the danger as most employees came down with cancer. The flourescent factory was closed down. He found these flourescent thingys dumped miles away from their factory in a farmers field! I guessed they were flourescent by the color. You don't think this needs further looking into?

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

.....OMG...Dig....I wish you coulda been in my physics class!! I woulda demanded a demonstration.... .

Dig's a knowledgable guy. 8)
Maybe I'm just paranoid and sometimes thoughts fly through my mind :P but better safe than sorry.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I found some info on the net. Maybe the danger in the clock factory was flourescent Radium paint. The workers sometimes licked the brush. :P

 

[DigEmAll]

Flourescent and radioactive are two different things.


Dig, how are you.This is true. Also I know nothing about nuclear physics. And I am not trying to scare anyone. All I know is a TV program I watched where workers made flourescent material for alarm clocks. Around 1940 something they discovered the danger as most employees came down with cancer. The flourescent factory was closed down. He found these flourescent thingys dumped miles away from their factory in a farmers field! I guessed they were flourescent by the color. You don't think this needs further looking into?

Here are my thoughts. If you look closely at the cone sitting on the light, you'll notice that it is being lit up, but is not itself lighting up. Look at the very top of the cone. See how it is still dark. The same thing would happen to say a cone made from solid plastic. The bottom would disperse the light and just a little would reach the top. I am sure that it isn't flouressing. Flouressing would give it a nice evenly lit look, as if the light bulb were actually inside it. (think lightning bugs butt)

I also don't think that these are mass produced. Look at how many variations in size there are. Let me rephrase that a bit, I don't think that there was a large volume of these made. I think that they were made there locally by who knows who and for who knows what reason.

As for the workers licking the brush at the radium plant.... well, what can you say? Hindsight is 20/20 right?

When concentrated, radium glows in the dark. Because of this property, it was once mixed with a paste of zinc sulfide to make a self-luminescent paint for watch, clock, and instrument dials. During the 1930s it was found, however, that exposure to radium posed a serious hazard to health: a number of the workers who routinely used the radium-containing luminescent paint developed anemia and, in some cases, bone cancer. The practice of employing radium in luminescent coatings was halted after the high toxicity of the material was recognized. (Encyclopedia Britannica 1997 guide to the Nobel Prizes)

 

[Jeffro]

I think hasbeen nailed it right off, they look like tumbling media to me too. Exactly like tumbling media.

 

[Owise Owera]

They don't glow in the dark once I turn the light off, No radiation after reading that last post.. I panicked. Thank god my uncle here owns a military surplus store and has a detector which by the way is pretty cool. I wonder what other kind of things he has. I might have to hang out there more often. Well if we conclude that they aren't anything, I'll leave it as that and see what other mysteries I can find out there. Thanks for the replies.

 

[hasbeen]

Many fire departments have instruments to measure radioactivity,check it out.

The hazardous materials in fluorescent lights are mercury and phosphoros.They also contain the inert gas argon.
Argon can be hazardous as it is heavier than air,excessive amounts when inhaled can cause suffocation.

While phosphorous is necessary for bone development and nerve function,it is poisonous.A condition caused by continued exposure to phosphorous is known as "Phosy Jaw",a condition that was prevelant among 19th century
workers in match factories.

My ID. was based on shape and worn appearances,media is availible in different colors.

hasbeen

 

[DigEmAll]

"While phosphorous is necessary for bone development and nerve function,it is poisonous. A condition caused by continued exposure to phosphorous is known as "Phosy Jaw",a condition that was prevelant among 19th century
workers in match factories."

Wow... that's cool. I didn't know that.

The phrase "Mad as a Hatter" came from the use of mercury to cure beaver pelts to make felt hats. The constant exposure to the mercury caused the "hatters" to go crazy.

I learn something new everyday!
Thanks.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Sorry if I made anyone panic. Sometimes a thought will just apear in my head. The thought that they were flourescent appeared immediately when I seen the pic. They are most likely harmless, as Dig explained. I have heard so many stories about illegal dumping of hazardous material, I guess I got carried away.
Nevertheless I wouldn't lick or eat them. :P
Thanks for the physics lesson.


What is tumbling media? And why would they be flourescent?

 

[Owise Owera]

Being of an inquisitive nature, I did the only scientific thing I know how. I took one of the cones outside and put it on a stone and hit it with a hammer. The darn thing flaked just like flint does. Definitely isn't plastic. Heres another picture of what it looks like broken

 

[Jeffro]

In the sheet metal trade we use them to deburr the edges on cut steel. Just about any small metal parts that are used in manufacturing that get handled by people are deburred for safety reasons. I'm sure that other trades use them for similar tasks. Gives the steel a nice soft, rounded edge that can't cut anybody.

And it doesn't appear to be flourescing... If the light source is removed, it doesn't give off light by itself, right Owise?

I'm not entirely sure what they are made out of, but I believe its some sort of ceramic.