uranium glass is a glass already having uranium, usually in the form of diuranic oxide, added to the glass mixture before it is melted for staining. The proportion usually varies from trace level to about 2% uranium by weight, although some 20th century pieces were made with uranium up to 25%.
Uranium glass was once made into glassware and household items, but fell from widespread use when uranium availability for most industries was severely restricted during the Cold War in the 1940s to the 1990s. Most of these objects are now considered antiques or retro-era collections, although there has been a small revival in artwork. Otherwise, modern uranium glass is now primarily confined to small objects such as beads or marbles as a novel scientific or decorative matter.
Video Uranium glass
Appearance
The normal color of uranium glass ranges from yellow to green depending on the state of oxidation and the concentration of metal ions, although this can be altered by the addition of other elements as glass dyes. Uranium glass also fluoresces bright green under ultraviolet light and can register above the background radiation at the Geiger counter which is quite sensitive, although most uranium glass is considered harmless and only very small radioactive.
Glass vaseline
The most distinctive color of uranium glass is pale yellowish green, which in 1920 caused the nickname of vaseline glass based on the similarity felt to the appearance of petroleum jelly that was formulated and sold commercially at the time. Special collectors still define vaseline glass as transparent or semi-transparent uranium glass in this particular color.
Vaseline glass is now used as a synonym for uranium glass, especially in the United States, but this use is not universal. The term is sometimes applied randomly to other types of glass based on certain aspects of their superficial appearance in normal light, regardless of the actual uranium content that requires blacklight testing to verify typical green fluorescence.
In the UK and Australia, the term vaseline glass can be used to refer to the type of translucent glass. Even in the United States, the description of "vaseline" is sometimes applied to all types of translucent glass with oily surface luster.
Other colors
Some other common subtypes of uranium glass have their own nicknames:
- custard glass (pale yellow or semiopak)
- jadite glass (pale or semi-opaque pale green; originally, the name was trademarked as "Jadite", though this is sometimes corrected redundantly in modern use for "jadeite")
- Depressed glass (pale transparent or semi-transparent green).
- Burmese Glass (frosted glass that is shaded from pink to yellow)
However, like "vaseline", the terms "custard" and "jad (e) ite" are often applied on the basis of a superficial appearance rather than uranium content. Similarly, Depression glass is also a common description for every glassware produced during the Great Depression regardless of appearance or formula.
Maps Uranium glass
History
Pre-industrial use
The use of uranium glass dates back to at least 79 AD, a mosaic date containing yellow glass with 1% uranium oxide found in a Roman villa on Cape Posillipo in the Bay of Naples, Italy by RT Gunther of the University of Oxford in 1912. Beginning in the Late Medieval , pitchblende is extracted from the Habsburg silver mine in Joachimsthal, Bohemia (now JÃÆ'¨chymov in the Czech Republic) and used as a dye in the local glass making industry.
Martin Klaproth (1743-1817), who discovered uranium, then experimented with the use of elements as a glass dye.
Usage
Glass fabrication
Uranium glass is used as one of several intermediate glasses in what is known as scientific blower glass as a 'graded seal'. It is commonly used in glasses for metal seals such as tungsten and molybdenum or nickel-based alloys such as Kovar, as an intermediate glass between metal sealing glass and low exposures borosilicate glass.
Modern production
Uranium glass became popular in the mid-19th century, with the period of its greatest popularity being from the 1880s to the 1920s.
The first major producer of uranium glass items is commonly known as Austrian Franz Xaver Riedel, who named yellow (German: Gelb ) and yellow-green (Germany: Gelb-GrÃÆ'¼n) glass varieties "annagelb" and "annagrÃÆ'¼n", respectively, in honor of his daughter Anna Maria. Riedel is a prolific uranium glass blower at Unter-Polaun (today Dolni Polubny), Bohemia from 1830 to 1848.
In the 1840s, many other European glass factories began producing uranium glass goods and developing new varieties of uranium glass. The Baccarat glass factory in France creates a frosted uranium green glass which they call chrysoprase of its resemblance to the green form of calcinyon.
At the end of the 19th century, glass makers discovered that uranium glass with certain mineral additions can become tempered at high temperatures, inducing various levels of micro-crystallization. This results in an increasingly opaque range of sunglasses from the transparent yellow or the traditional yellow-green to the opaque white. During the Depression years, more iron oxide is added to the mix to match the popular preference for greener glass. This material, technically glass-ceramic, earned the name "vaseline glass" because of its appearance similar to petroleum jelly. Today, some manufacturers continue the tradition of glass vaseline: Fenton Glass, Mosser Glass, Gibson Glass, and Jack Loranger.
US uranium eyewear production ceased during the middle years of World War II due to seizure of uranium by the US government, and was not continued until 1958.
RiihimÃÆ'¤ki Glass produces pieces of uranium glass designers after World War II.
See also
- Carnival Glass
- Depressed glass
- Fiestaware
- Sievert
- Uranium
References
External links
- Vaseline Glass Antique and Uranium Glass
- Uranium Glass - Glass Associations
- English Davidson Pressing Glass at the Glass Museum
- vaselineglass.org
- Vaseline and Uranium Glass in the Collections of the Instrumentation Museum of the History of Physical Health
- These People Like to Gather Radioactive Glass
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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