It took a while for me to get around to it, but today I brought a pile of returned steampunk jewelry up to Western's Chemistry department to be scanned for radium. The good news is that every piece came out squeaky-clean, no problems whatsoever. If you sent me jewelry, expect it in the mail soon.
The other good news is that I walked off with this:
Y'see, the Radiation Safety Officer received two of these guys as a donation from a Big Local Company. He was going to scrap them (send them out to be recalibrated and donated somewhere else), but he decided to give me one of my very own. It's not going to give me precise measurements, but if I decide to buy any other watch parts, it'll be responsive enough to tell me if I've got anything radioactive.
Plus, it'll make an outstanding prop for costumery of all sorts.
Man, I live a really weird life.
WOW! Dr Jane Irwin-Sizer. Atomisist! Duh Duh DUH!