Pretty Cool Flea Market Find: Cold War Era Civil Defense Geiger Counter

[JGalt]

I've been watching this thing for a couple months at a flea market and got the vendor to come down on the price today. It's a 1965 Civil Defense CDV-700 radiological survey meter, or Geiger counter. It detects beta or gamma radiation sources like radium-dial wristwatches, uranium glass, etc. There used to be hundreds of thousands of these all over the U.S., in every fallout shelter. I ended up giving $40 for it and they typically sell for $100 on Ebay. Probably just keep it for shits and grins.

CD V-700 - Wikipedia

Apparently it works great for being 53 years old and the calibration seems to be fairly accurate. It take four D-cell flashlight batteries and has an operational check source on the side, which is probably depleted uranium. The source measures 2 mr/hr with the switch in the X10 position. I have a Vietnam War era U.S. Navy NC-1 waterproof compass with a radium dial. It measures a whopping 10 mr/hr.

I also found (not pictured) a lot of Civil War era Sharps carbine parts, including one complete lock, one complete breech block with lever, five lock plates, and a shitload of other parts for $20. The last lot I found brought $850, we'll see what I can get for this one.

 

[westwall]

I've been watching this thing for a couple months at a flea market and got the vendor to come down on the price today. It's a 1965 Civil Defense CDV-700 radiological survey meter, or Geiger counter. It detects beta or gamma radiation sources like radium-dial wristwatches, uranium glass, etc. There used to be hundreds of thousands of these all over the U.S., in every fallout shelter. I ended up giving $40 for it and they typically sell for $100 on Ebay. Probably just keep it for shits and grins.

CD V-700 - Wikipedia

Apparently it works great for being 53 years old and the calibration seems to be fairly accurate. It take four D-cell flashlight batteries and has an operational check source on the side, which is probably depleted uranium. The source measures 2 mr/hr with the switch in the X10 position. I have a Vietnam War era U.S. Navy NC-1 waterproof compass with a radium dial. It measures a whopping 10 mr/hr.

I also found (not pictured) a lot of Civil War era Sharps carbine parts, including one complete lock, one complete breech block with lever, five lock plates, and a shitload of other parts for $20. The last lot I found brought $850, we'll see what I can get for this one.

I still have the one I bought 40 years ago! And it still works fine!

 

[JGalt]

I've been watching this thing for a couple months at a flea market and got the vendor to come down on the price today. It's a 1965 Civil Defense CDV-700 radiological survey meter, or Geiger counter. It detects beta or gamma radiation sources like radium-dial wristwatches, uranium glass, etc. There used to be hundreds of thousands of these all over the U.S., in every fallout shelter. I ended up giving $40 for it and they typically sell for $100 on Ebay. Probably just keep it for shits and grins.

CD V-700 - Wikipedia

Apparently it works great for being 53 years old and the calibration seems to be fairly accurate. It take four D-cell flashlight batteries and has an operational check source on the side, which is probably depleted uranium. The source measures 2 mr/hr with the switch in the X10 position. I have a Vietnam War era U.S. Navy NC-1 waterproof compass with a radium dial. It measures a whopping 10 mr/hr.

I also found (not pictured) a lot of Civil War era Sharps carbine parts, including one complete lock, one complete breech block with lever, five lock plates, and a shitload of other parts for $20. The last lot I found brought $850, we'll see what I can get for this one.

I still have the one I bought 40 years ago! And it still works fine!

Find anything radioactive? I'm going to go through my huge pile of junk and see what I can find.

Kinda wish I had this when I got dinged for shipping that Korean War US Army compass to the UK. It set off the radiation detector at the UK Customs, and I got a nasty letter from the US Postal Inspector, carbon-copied to the DHS.

 

[westwall]

I've been watching this thing for a couple months at a flea market and got the vendor to come down on the price today. It's a 1965 Civil Defense CDV-700 radiological survey meter, or Geiger counter. It detects beta or gamma radiation sources like radium-dial wristwatches, uranium glass, etc. There used to be hundreds of thousands of these all over the U.S., in every fallout shelter. I ended up giving $40 for it and they typically sell for $100 on Ebay. Probably just keep it for shits and grins.

CD V-700 - Wikipedia

Apparently it works great for being 53 years old and the calibration seems to be fairly accurate. It take four D-cell flashlight batteries and has an operational check source on the side, which is probably depleted uranium. The source measures 2 mr/hr with the switch in the X10 position. I have a Vietnam War era U.S. Navy NC-1 waterproof compass with a radium dial. It measures a whopping 10 mr/hr.

I also found (not pictured) a lot of Civil War era Sharps carbine parts, including one complete lock, one complete breech block with lever, five lock plates, and a shitload of other parts for $20. The last lot I found brought $850, we'll see what I can get for this one.

I still have the one I bought 40 years ago! And it still works fine!

Find anything radioactive? I'm going to go through my huge pile of junk and see what I can find.

Kinda wish I had this when I got dinged for shipping that Korean War US Army compass to the UK. It set off the radiation detector at the UK Customs, and I got a nasty letter from the US Postal Inspector, carbon-copied to the DHS.

Oh yeah, I used to use it when I was out looking for carnotite