[NewCandle] now here's a curious thing

[Jones Beene]

Nick 

Where was the monitor place relative to the axis of the rolls when you got
the high count?

Is there a variation now, in counts from moving the monitor to different
positions (above below etc)? Did you check for "geometry preference"
initially?

There is a good chance that if you were measuring from above - initially,
then- when the Al was placed in the solution, which had been stored as a
stable liquid - that any slight chemical reaction would cause the heavy
gaseous "daughters" - radon, xexon etc - to rise out of the solution and
impinge or get closer to the meter, giving the higher reading. The daughter
decay gases are millions of time more radioactive per atom, so the closer
they can aggregate to the meter - the higher you reading will appear from
them alone.

Jones