DIY Life

Make a Polonium detector

• by Francesca Clarke on Dec 4th 2007 3:00PM
• Filed under food, household hacks

Polonium 210 has had a lot of news coverage lately. Unless you're a secret agent or are having trouble with your mob connections, you probably don't need to worry about this stuff. If perhaps you are a super secret agent, or have angered some "associates" then it's always worth being cautious. You can make your own Polonium detector and bring it along to your Christmas parties and pub crawling for the holidays. Here's what you'll need to construct a homemade detector:

1. 2 darlington transistors
2. LED
   
3. Homemade iron chamber
4. One or two resistors
5. Battery
6. power switch

Once completed, hold the device over your drink. If the drink is tainted the light will go on. The detailed assembly instructions have diagrams and pictures to help you along the way. I don't know how you'd test the accuracy of this homemade device without actually poisoning one of your drinks. If you're one of those paranoid types, or you actually have a reason to hide, then pack this little gadget along and stay safe.

Tags: battery, drink, iron-chamber, LED, poison, Polonium, power, power-switch, resistors, test, tester, transistors

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