Most of the radioactive materials used by the pioneers of radioactivity are now lost.
As we grew increasingly aware of the dangers of radioactivity during the 20th century, people grew uneasy about having these powerful sources lying around in their offices and laboratories, and in most cases, they were disposed of.
However, in Glasgow Soddy's samples were not simply treated as radioactive waste. In the late 1950s John Lloyd of the University's Natural Philosophy department, designed a special mock-medieval, lead-lined treasure chest to house what he saw as historical jewels. The box was built in the University works department, and quickly became known as "The Soddy Box":
Although lead-lined, the box was not a significant barrier to the powerful radium-rich sources within, and the box itself had to be kept away from people. At various times it lived in a hut on the roof of the Joseph Black building, in an old coal-mine adit underneath the building, and in disused toilets within the building, among other places. The mythical Soddy Box became an invisible, but notorious part of the University's science heritage.
Eventually, the box and its radioactive contents came under the care of the University's Radiation Protection Service, and were properly logged and registered as required by the evolving laws and regulations.
However, around 2011, the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency carried out a review of unused radioactive materials in Scotland. The Soddy Box contents were identified as orphan materials, with no clear function, or reason for being held, and their fate was in the balance. Options for their disposal as radioactive waste were costed, but the episode made people aware of these rare survivors from the dawn of the nuclear age. Voices from within the University, and from isotope scientists all over the UK argued for their preservation as key historical artifacts, and this argument prevailed.
Although the radioactive materials remain physically in the custody of the Radiation Protection Service, they are now part of the University's Hunterian museum collections. The samples are no longer housed in the box, and the box (non-radioactive) is now in the care of the Hunterian, where it will play a leading role in the forthcoming exhibit "Born in Glasgow:100 years of Isotope Science", opening on December 5th 2013.
But what was in the box?
As we grew increasingly aware of the dangers of radioactivity during the 20th century, people grew uneasy about having these powerful sources lying around in their offices and laboratories, and in most cases, they were disposed of.
However, in Glasgow Soddy's samples were not simply treated as radioactive waste. In the late 1950s John Lloyd of the University's Natural Philosophy department, designed a special mock-medieval, lead-lined treasure chest to house what he saw as historical jewels. The box was built in the University works department, and quickly became known as "The Soddy Box":
Although lead-lined, the box was not a significant barrier to the powerful radium-rich sources within, and the box itself had to be kept away from people. At various times it lived in a hut on the roof of the Joseph Black building, in an old coal-mine adit underneath the building, and in disused toilets within the building, among other places. The mythical Soddy Box became an invisible, but notorious part of the University's science heritage.
Eventually, the box and its radioactive contents came under the care of the University's Radiation Protection Service, and were properly logged and registered as required by the evolving laws and regulations.
However, around 2011, the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency carried out a review of unused radioactive materials in Scotland. The Soddy Box contents were identified as orphan materials, with no clear function, or reason for being held, and their fate was in the balance. Options for their disposal as radioactive waste were costed, but the episode made people aware of these rare survivors from the dawn of the nuclear age. Voices from within the University, and from isotope scientists all over the UK argued for their preservation as key historical artifacts, and this argument prevailed.
Although the radioactive materials remain physically in the custody of the Radiation Protection Service, they are now part of the University's Hunterian museum collections. The samples are no longer housed in the box, and the box (non-radioactive) is now in the care of the Hunterian, where it will play a leading role in the forthcoming exhibit "Born in Glasgow:100 years of Isotope Science", opening on December 5th 2013.
But what was in the box?
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