Alpha auto-radiography of gas lantern mantles

الملخص EN

Gas lantern mantles containing thorium oxide glow with a dazzling light when lantern fuel is burned on the mantle.

The distribution of thorium in the whole gas mantle sample was studied by using alpha auto-radiography technique through detecting alphas emitted by thorium and its daughters.

This was done by sandwiching the mantle between two sheets of nuclear track detectors type PM-355 super grade and x-ray films for 21 days each.

The technique showed that thorium is distributed in all of the mantle fabric and both x-ray film and nuclear track detector showed good resolution.