Unknown Luminescent Process from Tap Water

I'm no chemist and I'm posting this because it might interest some of you and also to get your input.

It gets very dry here in the winter. Sometimes I will have a pot of water on the stove simmering to bring the humidity back up above dessert levels. I keep the element temperature fairly low so if the pot dries up (which it often does) nothing gets ruined. My community doesn’t demineralise the water and constant simmering can deposit a thick layer of mineral cement on the surface of the pot. I’ve learned that adding a few tablespoons of vinegar keeps the pot looking like a mirror unless it dries up completely. Even then it cleans right up with the next batch of water.

So here is the interesting thing. A couple of nights ago I decide to get up for a drink of water. On the way past the stove I check the pot and sure enough it has dried up. I haven’t bothered turning any lights on so it’s pretty dark in the kitchen. As I pick up the pot to refill it I notice that large portions of the inside bottom are glowing. It is dim, white with perhaps a tinge of blue. It reminds me of bioluminescence or the afterglow shortly after a CFL is turned off.

I didn’t have the fortitude to wake up completely and try and get a picture because it was a very dim glow and I’m sure it would take a lot of trial and error to capture. I will be ready for it next time and post an example. I’m not sure I have anything around here that will capture it at all but I have done the CHDK on my little point and shoot and it does pretty well with long exposures now so I’ll give that a try.

Cheers!
CB

a reply to: CraftBuilder

It is most probably radioactive material. What else will glow in the dark. Are you near Fukushima?

a reply to: saadad

Ha! no.

There are many luminescent minerals and algae.
Do a google on it, there are more than I care to type out.
Have the water analyzed if you care to kick out the money for it.

originally posted by: skunkape23
There are many luminescent minerals and algae.
Do a google on it, there are more than I care to type out.
Have the water analyzed if you care to kick out the money for it.

Deep sea algae, jellyfish, and harmful mircrobes. Blackfin Icefish is another example. Some of these creatures thrive in environments that are poisonous to humans. Carbon dioxide, Uv-B rays, and carcinogens are home to these baddies.

CFL lights (cobalt blue) actually have a phosphorescent afterglow because they thermally burn the added mercury within the fixture. When mercury meet low pressure plasma and moisture, it produces healthy, antimicrobial UV-C light. The same stuff they use in industrial and medical sterilization.

a reply to: trifecta

Heres a pic of baby gouldian finches .


They glow in the dark so their parents can feed them .

Nothing to worry about. Just keep drinking it and your eyes will have a nice young glow to them. It keeps your pearly white teeth nice and bright. It will save you money because you won't have to get them whitened to glow.

Found this....
THERMOLUMINESCENCE

Thermoluminescence is a property of some minerals to glow when they are heated. The minerals contain chemical bonds that emit light when thermal energy (heat) is applied to them. It is well know that steel becomes luminescent when it has been heated and is being worked. Some minerals glow when they are subjected to temperatures of between 50 and 475 degrees C. Activator elements must be present in these minerals just like in UV fluorescence. In some minerals, they will glow only once during heating and then never glow again. This is because the excited electrons were trapped in a higher state during crystallization and only when heated were they allowed to lower their energy state by emitting the photons of light.

Minerals that have been known to show this unusual property are:

APATITE, CALCITE, some FELDSPARS, FLUORITE and LEPIDOLITE.

a reply to: Esarman
Thanks, that's a good place to start. Determining whether or not whatever is in my water will glow again after a cooling cycle may help narrow the possibilities. I have equipment for making accurate temperature correlation as well. I suppose spectral analysis too (which I can do in Photoshop). Not that I want to put a lot of effort into it. Its mostly just interesting to me.

originally posted by: trifecta

CFL lights (cobalt blue) actually have a phosphorescent afterglow because they thermally burn the added mercury within the fixture. When mercury meet low pressure plasma and moisture, it produces healthy, antimicrobial UV-C light. The same stuff they use in industrial and medical sterilization.

Wow. Not at all.

CFL lights - or any form of light that uses phosphor re-emission to change the light spectrum emitted by the primary source - have an afterglow because there's a time constant on when the re-emission occurs. For some phosphors, this is very fast, and the half-life of re-emission is brief. For others, it's several seconds, and you can see a definite 'afterglow'.

CFL bulbs do not "burn mercury". There isn't any moisture in them. The mercury, converted to a plasma much like that of a neon light, emits UV that is absorbed by the phosphor and re-emitted as visible light. The bulb manufacturer chooses the phosphor mix to get a group of re-emitted colors that fit the bulb's usage, thus do you get "cool white" and "daylight" CFL types.

a reply to: Bedlam

You did not mention frequencies. Not even once.
You are clearly mistaken. Because...frequencies...man. Everything is frequencies.

originally posted by: CraftBuilder
It is dim, white with perhaps a tinge of blue. It reminds me of bioluminescence or the afterglow shortly after a CFL is turned off.

Don't live in Texas, do you? Calcium carbonate can do this.

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: Bedlam

You did not mention frequencies. Not even once.
You are clearly mistaken. Because...frequencies...man. Everything is frequencies.

And vibrations. Can't forget vibrations.

a reply to: Bedlam
Which are not the same thing as frequencies. As we all know.