Radiumchema Emanator Apparatus (ca. 1920s)
This is an early radium emanator designed to add radon directly into a drinking glass. To use it, water was poured into the top. Over time, the radon gas produced by the decay of the device's internal radium source entered and charged the water. The internal source (removed from this example) was a white ceramic cylinder.
Size: ca. 12" high, 3.5" widest diameter
Manufactured by the Radiumchema company in St. Joachimstal in what used to be Czechoslovakia. After World War II, the name of the town changed to Joachymov. See another product from Radiumchema.
Exposure rate: Daniel Gmünder has reported that the exposure rate at one foot from the 20,000 Mache Type C version of this unit was approximately 68 uR/hr above background.
The label reads:
RADIUMCHEMA
St. Joachimstal
Emanationsapparat
Nr 13521
Kapazitat:
10,000 Mache Einheitenin
24 Stunden
Chemische Fabriken A.G. Hohn
Abt. Radiumchema
The indicated strength of the device, 10,000 Mache units equates to 3,600,000 pCi/l in water. Radiumchema made five versions of this device ranging from 5,000 to 100,000 Mache units. This 10,000 Mache example was the Type B version.