->  TW>  The only thing I can think of is that the Kathode was made out of a
->  TW> Beta Emitter. Rembember in the "Old Days" we used
radioactive materials
->  TW> for a lot ot things.

-> Like those "glow-in-the-dark" wristwatches from about 1950 which used
-> actual compounds of Radium?  Heck, I got one of those glow in the
-> dark wristwatches right now, from SEIKO, and I wonder what they now use
-> to make them glow.

 Yes and quite a number of Women got Mouth Cancer from painting Radium
Dials on aircraft instruments. Theyb sharpened the tip of hte fine brush
on their tounge.
Modern glow in the dark clock and watch faced are of two types. One uses
a material that absorbs photons of light and then re-emits them over a
proiod of time. Faster at first and then slowing down as the stored
supply diminishes. They are the ones that are bright at first and then
slowly dim untill they can hardly be seen. The other typpe uses small
capsuled excitable phosphor with a Tritium source, H3 included.that
decays giving off a particle that exciteds the phosphor causeng it to
glow. They have a constant ilumination level while in the dark. 
The Tritium while concidered radioactive is only a hazard if actualy
injected into the body. But you would have to take the capsuled form
quite a few watches and swollow then to be of any real hazard at all.
Hardily something that will happen.

-> AWWW! Now I've had the thing sitting down here between my knees on the
-> floor with its protective metal cover off for a couple of weeks.  I
-> think maybe my cajones have been exposed to some RADS or sumpin - -
-> who can I sue? who can I sue?

 Actualy experiments with Sterlilizing Jews was conducted by the Germans
prior and during ot WWII. IT basicly dosen't work. But still the jokes
about wearing Lead Lined Jock Straps endured. 

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