>>1487360Tritium glows so you can read your compass in the dark but I think he’s probably confused or lying...
Tritium began to be used on watch hands and compass needles in the late 1960’s. Before that radium was used. Radium however is highly radioactive and a health risk so it was banned in 1968.
Here’s the catch, tritium is also radioactive (much less than radium) but it has a half-life of 12 years, meaning that it decays and after 12 years only half as much will remain. Anon claims his compass was manufactured in 1958 - 61 years or 5 half-lives ago. If true, his compass would now contain only 3% of its original amount of tritium and would give off only a very feeble glow if any at all.
