Why would the flight instruments be radioactive? Do they have radium on the dials?

Probably, so that they would glow in the dark.

They do indeed have radium paint on the dial needles for night flying.

What was surprising was that I have another vintage dial and it only tickled the G-M counter, these new ones make it scream.

Glow in the dark in that era? Radium paint. Half-life will keep it glowing for a couple millennia.

WWII German dials used UV florescent paint instead so had little UV lamps for illumination.

Aye, but since you mentioned P-40, I assumed in context that it was American pieces-parts.

Yes, they are radium dialed US parts, but I just wanted to toss out the factoid about German stuff too.

Have you try some flight museum or WW2 museum?

Some antic shop or a WW2 collector?

That is part of the plan, but I literally just got them and am still sorting it all out. The bulk of the files could go to a museum if one will take them, but it would be nice to get some coin for the parts, and museums don't pay.

Yea, museum don't have money. So a maybe a collector? movie set who's looking for parts for planes?

Ebay? might make some money with the parts?

I'm a 61 year-old guy who's been dealing in stuff for over 30 years. Don't want to sound like I'm slamming you, but whenever I mention some thing I'm dealing with, I get 'advice' like I was an idiot novice. Wish well-meaning folks would be even more well-meaning by stopping and not be so quick to offer 'help' of that type.

Dammit, you're one of the few I can't call a young punk! (I'm 52) ;)

I'm 50, so you're both older that me ^^

MEREST YOUTH!!!

Oh Hush, Kid. (53! ha!)

Whipper snapper!

If you do go the route of auction or sale, will you announce it here? I'm interested.

anything in particular you might be interested in? I also have a valve cover for an Allison V-1710 and one of the little fixtures the .50BMG muzzle goes through on the leading edge of the wing, and a couple partial instrument panels. And a right quarter panel for the windscreen of a P-40, some somewhat busted.

Instruments mostly. Altimeters, DFs, Compass.. that sort of thing. Of course they don't have to be in working order.
Some of the stuff I have is a Navigator's clock from a B17-G, a fluid compass from P51-D, and pieces of an F4U-1 that had crashed near where I lived on Barber's Point on Oahu.

Unfortunately, those are the things I want to hang on to. A Sperry gyro horizon, turn and bank, rate of turn, manifold pressure and a N-3A gunsight.

Gun sights are fun optics. Though getting the correct bulbs for them is sometimes a problem.

Weird shit indeed. And when it is passed down, collector after collector, someway there may be enough stuff to re-create an entire war or two.

Just dribs and drabs. What is sad is that personal relics are often tossed by family members who don't know about any historic value.

this reminds me of a story from germany I once read in a classic car magazine. it was about a family, whose granddad died and left behind some stuff, including an ooold mercedes nobody could identify. it had curious doors and was hard to climb in, which is why the old man didn't drive it much in his late years, but all they knew was that the old thing was daddys' finest.
so they sat together and brained over what to do with the old thing. re-sell it? maybe, but for how much? so they calculated, and in the end came up with a fantasy pricetag, I think it was little over 10.000Deutschmark back when. put it in the newspapers, and foudn themselves doused with interested people from all over europe. a few days later someone actually showed up, inspected the car quickly, put it on the trailer, payed in cash, and sped off like a madman.
the phone calls still contnued for a while, when someone asked, for how much did you sell the thing in the end? so they told him, and received some silence... then the caller told them what the old ride was actually worth.
what did they have, then? a gullwing 300SL in running, complete condition. at a time when these cars were sold for up to a million DM in good condition...

a little research would have helped. but, nooo, old stuff doesn't matter, or does it?

woah, very active. wouldn't that disturb the radio, too, in the cockpit? or maybe they capsuled the radio because of this.
I remember from school days' chemical ed that back when those who painted the dials and arms would often straighten the brush tips with their lips and ended up with hefty face cancer after a while.
I didn't know about the UV lights in german cockpits. interesting detail. maybe they couldn't get enough radium back when, so that got used for handwatches instead?

also, good luck and much success with selling. I hope you can gather good funds for your friend. :)

Radiation doesn't bother old school electronics or EM in general (well except for massive ionization, post nuke detonation) , though don't get a cell 'phone too close, as the rads can kill the chips.

ah, okay. and nobody cared about the impact on human life back when, either.

Neat stuff! I've always found aircraft parts interesting though I've yet to own any, be fun to have a functioning altimeter in a car, just to make people wonder...

Ooooh, neat stuff!

Is there any problem in having all those stuff with you? Since they contain radioactive material, they can be harmful to your health, I think.

As long as the glass is intact, and you aren't sleeping on them all night, they are fine. Most instruments of the time were using radium painted markings.

I love the old instruments. Yes, they were radioactive, but not too dangerous if the glass is intact. As for the P-40 parts. If they are in good shape, maybe Planes of Fame might want them. The other alternative is there is a brisk business in old instruments and aircraft parts on eBay. There, a lot of folks scan, and you can get the highest prices for it.

This prompted me to have my brother dig out his Geiger counter and test Dad's 1944-vintage Rolex Oyster. It's emitting 1.5 - 2 mR/hr, so it's going to kill us ten times faster than the Americium dot in our old smoke detector. Yes, I wound it and it still keeps time... at 73 years of age.

How about a pocket watch from 1801 that still keeps time? I have one. I don't wind it nowadays so as to not wear out the spring.

I'd say it's a keeper. Your retirement idea may keep it functional longer -- there are no parts for 200+ year old watches. Everything has to be fabricated.

Currently it's hanging in an airtight display dome filled with nitrogen.

Now, Steve, hon, don't you be playing too close to them nu-cu-ler radio-station-activisms, okay? We want to keep you healthy for a while longer! o_o

-2Paw.

P.S.: Geiger counter +1

We had an old radium dial alarm clock that set my Geiger counter off big time. One of my cooler boxes of bits contains a bunch of twisted parts from around a V2 test stand in Peenemunde.