Characteristics and fabrication of Geiger-Mueller counters with thin walls made of treated magnesium - Note about the use of araldite

This report describes, first, the advantage of magnesium for the manufacturing of Geiger-Mueller counters: suitable for machining and polishing, but strong reactivity with the counter atmosphere in the case of magnesium-rich alloys. Thus, the inside wall of the counter (cylinder of 20 mm diameter and 6 cm length) requires a non-reactive protective coating with excellent sealing properties. The synthetic resin 'araldite' fulfills all these conditions. The second part of the report describes the different steps of the fabrication of magnesium wall counters: lathe work, machining down and chemical polishing of hulls, assembly, tight sealing, pumping, filling-up and control tests. The average service life of these counters is of about 4 months. A note about the use and properties (hardening, mechanical properties, resistance..) of araldite is given in appendix. (J.S.)