Mad Nuclear Scientists Information Pages: Firefly Miniglow
We suggest you read all the information here before purchasing Firefly Miniglow. We are more than happy to
answer any other questions you may have before you purchase - please use the Contact form on our website.
THE Firefy Miniglow, WHAT ARE THEY?
At the heart of every Miniglow is a Swiss Trigalight™ capable of powering its light output for many years. The outer
casing of the Miniglow consists of a clear polycarbonate window between two chrome fittings. The Firefly Miniglow
requires NO batteries, neither does it need charging from sunlight or any other light source before it will work, its
power source is completely self-contained.
HOW DO THEY WORK?
The Trigalight™ is a gas tritium light source or GTLS composed of a laser sealed borosilicate glass tube which has a
special phosphor coating on its inner surface and has been filled with a small amount of tritium gas. As the tritium
decays the beta particles emitted by its nuclei strike the tube’s phosphor coating causing it to emit visible light. By
varying the type and combination of phosphors used it is possible to create tubes which emit different colours.
The excitation of phosphors by electrons (beta particles) used in the GTLS is the same principle used to create the
television picture in the old cathode ray tube televisions, only in the case of the GTLS the electrons are provided in
the form of beta rays by the disintegration of the tritium nuclei.
Tritium has a half-life of a little over 12 years so, as long as the glass core is not damaged, the Firefly Miniglow will
emit light for many years.
How safe is a Trigalight™?
As the electrons produced by the gaseous tritium are so low in energy, they are unable to breach a sheet of paper or
to penetrate human skin.
Can a Firefly Miniglow be Damaged or stop glowing?
Yes a Firefly Miniglow can be damaged and so will stop glowing. Although quite tough the Firefly Miniglow is NOT
indestructible, the inner borosilicate glass tritium lamp can break and if this happens it will stop glowing. So please
understand that if you break the lamp we will NOT give you a refund or a replacement. The glass tritium lamp inside
can be broken if dropped onto a hard surface or if the Miniglow receives a hard blow. The outer polycarbonate case
of the Miniglow is tough and may not show signs of damage even though the Miniglow has received a blow hard
enough to cause damage.
WHAT COLOURS ARE THERE & HOW BRIGHT ARE THEY?
This is a list of the colours we can supply (subject to availability) and an explanation of the perceived brightness:
Green, Yellow, White, Orange, Ice Blue, Red, Pink, Purple, UV Blue
Do all of the colours available appear to be the same brightness?
The simple answer is NO they do not, the human eye does not have a linear response to colours and is more
sensitive to some colours than to others; so with the Firefly Miniglow there is quite a big difference between how
you will perceive the colours to which the eye is most sensitive and to which the eye is least sensitive.
So; which Firefly Miniglow will look the brightest, and which the dimmest?
By far the brightest looking Firefly Miniglow is the Green and the dimmest the UV Blue. If you consider the Green as
the brightest perceived then UV Blue will only appear to be about 15% as bright as the Green, Yellow is close to
Green and is seen as about 80% as bright as the Green.
The list of colours shown above was compiled by us when looking at the Miniglows in the dark as what we perceived
the order of brightness to be, from brightest (left) to dimmest (right); and although there is a large difference
between the brightest and the dimmest, between some of the colours it was difficult to agree on exactly the order
they should be arranged in, if you do some searching on the internet you can find numerous lists of perceived
brightness, some agree with ours and some differ slightly.
The important thing is: if the brightness IS important then you should select Green or Yellow - if it’s not then pick a
colour but expect them not to appear as bright.
What kind of brightness can I actually expect?
Firstly, these are designed as an aid to finding items in dimly lit situations, such as keys, luggage and a thousand
other things we’ll leave up to you to think of.
They are not going to light up the room, or give you something to sit and read by.
How bright they will actually appear to you will depend on what we’ve said above and on how well dark-adjusted
your eyes have become for example: if you go from a brightly lit situation into the dark and look at your Miniglow it
won’t appear anywhere near as bright as it would if you’d been sitting in the dark for say 10 minutes and then
looked at it, it takes time for your eyes to adjust to a darkened room.
How much should I rely on the colours and apparent brightness of the images I can see on the website?
This question highlights a problem you will always come across when trying to buy something from the internet
based on how it looks; in this case the colour and how bright it appears.
If you look at the apparent brightness of the different colours on the website they all probably look about the same
brightness, why is this? Firstly, when taking the photographs the camera was set to a bulb (or timed exposure)
setting so as to obtain an image that was bright enough to be useful. Secondly, cameras, whether film or digital
based have a different response to colour sensitivity than the human eye; it is impossible to show how bright these
will actually appear by showing you a photograph on a computer screen.
As for the colour it is impossible to give you an accurate representation of how you will actually see the colour, a full
explanation of why would be very long but is basically as a result of the colour gamut’s of the different technologies
used in bringing you the colours over the internet versus the human eye; so use the colours shown in the images as a
rough guide only.
Some of the colours actually look quite similar to each other in real life, the UV Blue is supposed to be a rough
approximation of the colour of an old black light lamp (blue with a hint of purple) and looks quite similar when
compared to the purple Miniglow which may not be apparent on the images, where it appears more blue. So as we
said, please use the images as a rough guide only.
WHAT ARE THE DIMENSIONS?
Firefly Miniglow:
The Trigalight™ at the heart of the Firefly Miniglow is a laser sealed borosilicate tube 6mm tall and 1.5mm diameter
(approximately 0.24 inches tall and 0.06 inches diameter)
The dimensions of the Firefly Miniglow outer casing measure 18mm tall and 8.5mm diameter (approximately 0.71
inches tall and 0.33 inches diameter). The visible window is 8mm tall (approximately 0.31 inches tall).
The ring is a strong stainless steel split ring with an outer diameter of approximately 20mm (approximately 0.79
inches).
All information contained within these pages may be subject to change without notice.