The 8008 1752

Yep.

I had a couple spinthariscopes that contained some quanbreasty of radium.

They are essentially a little microscope focused on a fluorescent screen which flashes when struck by the radiation from a radium atom.

If observed carefully over time and recorded, can give a measure of the randomness of radionuclear decay as well as an estimate of the half life.

BTW, all natural uranium sources contain radium because it is a decomposition product of uranium.

Gas mantles used to contain a large amount of thorium.

In the lab, during the 1960s, we used to have powerful polonium sources on gooseneck stands to ionize the air so that paraffin serial sections wouldn't stick to things by "static cling" when coming off the microtome. Polonium is a powerful alpha emitter.

I used to have a Texas Instruments wris****ch which IIRC contained a whopping 200 millicuries of tritium. After your eyes were dark adapted you could read a newspaper by the light from the dial.

Some A.C. Gilbert chemistry sets contained a "radioactive strip" which contained a fair amount of radium or some similar substance coated onto a small strip of cardboard. This could be used for a varety of purposes such as demonstrating how radiation would expose photographic film. (Does anyone even have film now in the age of the digital camera?)

I also had a couple pounds of yellowcake uranium ore, the same substance which was the origin of the current Karl Rove scandal.

When I was in college I had several pounds of depleted uranyl acetate which was commonly used as a tissue stain in transmission electron microscopy. The only reason it was depleted is that it was cheaper because the government had extracted the U-235 to make nuclear weapons.

Actually, nuclear weapons are not very radioactive, which makes detecting them rather difficult. Plutonium 239 for instance is an alpha emitter and alpha particles are blocked by an ordinary sheet of paper. Plutonium does generate a substantial amount of heat, however, and has been used in generators for spacecraft which use the heat to produce electricity.

one's risk of developing cancer. OTOH, the risk from most sources, including A.C. Gilbert chemistry sets is pretty low and is generally less than the benefit obtained.

Uranium and other radioactive materials are present in small quanbreasties in most areas as part of the environment.