[Rockhounds] No Magic?!? Welder's eye

Mon Apr 13 14:42:13 PDT 2009

Jeff,

When Richard Loyens was still European regional VP of the FMS, he organised
a fluorescent display at the Sorbonne (Paris, France). He asked all of us to
lend specimens to fill a large display. One of the guys, Bob, was a
professional... he was into tanning lamps. He had a custom made SW-lamp that
consisted of a quartz serpentine tube of a meter long, filled with mercury,
argon, xenon and what have you. That thing could light up the Grand Canyon
from Canada...  Boy, 5 minutes after he switched that thing on the hole in
the ozone layer ran over. Really, I never saw a lamp that powerful until I
got my UV-Systems TripleBright SW. Don't take it to Greenland or you'll melt
the ice cap.

OK, so Bob went home, collected some boxes with specimens and started
sorting them out for the display. As many smart men, Bob didn't think before
doing. He put his mega-watt lamp on a tripod and sat on the floor among the
boxes, sorting, admiring, approving, discarding....

Bob has no hair on his head for the same reason as I don't have any... Large
brains use up all the oxygen and nutrients so the scalp dies. 
He sat there merrily under his doomsday lamp for about two hours.  They
rushed him to a burn-centre... I heard he looked like the deep-fried version
of Terry Savalas for quite some time thereafter.

Axel

> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> Van: rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com
[mailto:rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com]
> Namens Jeffrey T. Cessna
> Verzonden: maandag 13 april 2009 20:59
> Aan: Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors
> Onderwerp: RE: [Rockhounds] No Magic?!? Welder's eye
> 
> Speaking as a recent recipient of this particular reward for
> stupidity, I can echo the sentiment to watch out for reflections. I
> was very careful not to look directly at the TripleBright UV lamp as
> I stood there for a long time arranging my first fluorescent display
> at our recent show. I knew I had burned my hands. I even remember
> noticing that my face felt slightly burned...hmmm. At 3 AM I woke up
> to that sand in your eyes feeling. The only difference is that you
> can't wash this sand out. Thankfully, it had been a long day setting
> up the show and I eventually was exhausted enough to fall asleep
> again. It got worse through the next day. The other feeling you get
> when your eyes temporarily give up producing tears is an extended
> version of cutting a really juicy onion. It really cut into my
> purchasing at our show because I couldn't focus on anything. I still
> had very puffy eyes, but my pain had mostly gone away by the second
morning.
> 
> Wear that eye protection! and sunscreen or gloves, as well.
> 
> Jeff
> 
> At 11:36 AM 4/13/2009, you wrote:
> >Amen!
> >  The delay has to do about cells that are damaged but not yet destroyed.
> >Sometimes burn-blisters appear also a day later (sometimes even 48 hrs)
> >
> >I think it's pretty much like any skin burn... 1st degree is painful but
you
> >recover completely. 2nd degree needs medical attention and 3rd degree is
> >permanent.
> >
> >Cheers
> >Axel
> >
> > > -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> > > Van: rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com
> >[mailto:rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com]
> > > Namens Kreigh Tomaszewski
> > > Verzonden: maandag 13 april 2009 5:19
> > > Aan: Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem
collectors
> > > Onderwerp: Re: [Rockhounds] No Magic?!? Welder's eye
> > >
> > > The stage beyond the sand in the eyes feeling is like a severe sunburn
> > > of your eyeballs and is very, very, painful. Your vision fogs up and
> > > you start worrying about permanent loss of sight. The reaction is
> > > delayed by a day, and takes a couple weeks to recover from.
> > >
> > > UV effects are cumulative in the short run.
> > >
> > > Please believe me, you don't want to go there. If you use UV you need
> > > to take precautions. I learned the lesson the hard way many years ago.
> > > I was fortunate and recovered. I would not wish the pain on anyone. I
> > > was lucky.
> > >
> > > Please take UV precautions seriously.
> > >
> > > Kreigh
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Sunday, Apr 12, 2009, at 11:23 America/Detroit, Axel Emmermann
wrote:
> > >
> > > >> Axel,
> > > >
> > > > [Axel] Awake and listening ;-)
> > > >
> > > >> I took a welding class once, I bet you've got UV lamp eye, not
nearly
> > > >> as
> > > > bad as from a real
> > > >> arc!
> > > >
> > > > [Axel] UV-eyes come from the 253.7  (UV-C) nm and 312 nm (UV-B)
> > > > radiation of
> > > > mercury lamps. Welders eyes are caused by the strong iron-lines in
the
> > > > 190
> > > > nm region of the spectrum. That would make it what... UV-D?
> > > >
> > > > I was really careful about using the hood, and still got caught a
> > > > little
> > > > once in a while.
> > > >
> > > > [Axel] Reflections from aside, no doubt. Some substances are
excellent
> > > > UV-reflectors: aluminium, dolomite (cement and concrete)... I use
> > > > aluminium
> > > > reflectors when photographing fluorescent minerals. Sometimes I
catch a
> > > > reflection over my glasses when looking through the camera. Feels
like
> > > > fine
> > > > sand in you eyes...
> > > >
> > > >>
> > > >> And even longer ago, I worked in a photo engraving shop, making
line
> > > > negatives and etching
> > > >> zinc plates with nitric acid.  We used a photo-sensitive emulsion
that
> > > > worked to setup when
> > > >> exposed to UV, and back in the day we used really really bright
> > > >> carbon arc
> > > > lamps to expose
> > > >> the plates.
> > > >
> > > > [Axel] That's enough ozone, acid fumes and dry heat to develop a
cough
> > > > or
> > > > two ;-)))
> > > >
> > > >> The photo engravings were usually of ladies at social events, but
> > > >> there
> > > > was the occasional
> > > >> train wreck too.  The news stories were cast in molten lead; there
> > > >> were a
> > > > couple of dozen
> > > >> pots full of liquid lead, one for each linotype.  Every once in a
> > > >> while I
> > > > got a lapful of molten
> > > >> lead, and spent the rest of the shift picking bits of lead foil off
my
> > > > pants!  Exciting but
> > > >> mostly harmless, I think.  Ancient crafts and skills, casting
> > > >> letterpress
> > > > newspapers for fun
> > > >> and profit!
> > > >
> > > > [Axel] The dementing effects of lead can't be that bad since you
> > > > remember
> > > > all this ;-)))
> > > > Those crafts and skills sometimes make me a bit nostalgic. I the lab
> > > > where I
> > > > work  you really need to look hard to find a piece of glass. That
was
> > > > quite
> > > > different 20 years ago...
> > > >
> > > >> What would OSHA think!
> > > >
> > > > [Axel] If they are anything like their Belgian counterpart,
"thinking"
> > > > is
> > > > the last thing  I would accuse them of (LOL)
> > > >
> > > >> Keep on fluorescing!
> > > >
> > > > [Axel] Ya bet!
> > > > Axel
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > --
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