Glow In The Dark Ink?

[sharonspens]

Can't speak to the ink question, but there are some glow-in-the-dark gel nail polishes - the ones I've worn not only glow into dark, but they also change color depending on the temperature.

 

And yes, they do glow in the dark, which is quite eerie when I forget I'm wearing it and catch sight of my own hands in the middle of the night. hahahahaha

 

Sharon in Indiana

[JakobS]

J. Herbin makes a phosphorescent ink for dip pens that actually glows in the dark, and not with the help of a black/UV light. Of course, this ink isn't for fountain pen use, so no help with the Retro 51, but exists nonetheless....

[Oldane]

Glow in the dark ink is simple to make. Just add some radium dust to the bottle and shake well. If you can't find any at your local hardware store, you can scrape off some from old glow in the dark watches.

 

These days, the glow in the dark substance used for watches is marketed as Luminova or Super Luminova.It is sold in bottles and is applied as paint. It can fill the holes in "skeleton" watch hands so I feel quite sure that it has a too high viscosity to be used in fountain pens and besides there are likely particles in it which will clog a pen. Luminova normally doesn't keep its glow all night. If permanent glow is needed there are minute glass tubes filled with Tritium and treated with a flouroscent layer on the inside of the tubes. These tubes can be mounted on the watch hands and dial markers. Tritium emits alfa rays which can't penetrade the glass, so it's safe in use. Tritium has a half life of about 15 years so it will lose its power with time. As for radium, it also decays and by now it's so long ago that it was used for watches that old watches no longer emits any significant amount of radiation and it no longer glows. I still have my first watch I got as a child 62 years ago and there's not a trace of glow left. So I don't think scraping radium off an old watch is of any use.

[taimdala]

They could have been tightie-whities. (or would they be tightie-yellow-greenies, in this case?)

Tightie-Brighties?

[essayfaire]

Tightie-Brighties?

Ugh. I think we can stop talking about unmentionables now. Apologies to everyone that I even started.

[austollie]

While it doesn't glow in the dark, Pelikan's M205 ink makes for great highlighter ink. I use with a calligraphy pen, in lieu of a highlighter. That works well for me.