1/23/2024 0 Comments Radium glass safeSince the fluorescence is a fundamental property of the U and has nothing to do with the isotopics, it doesn’t matter what the radioactive level of the U might be.” ![]() “In depleted U,” Marks explains, “the 235 is mostly, but not completely, removed. This property remains even when, as Skelcher noted, almost all of the radioactivity has been depleted. The fluorescence is just an inherent property of the uranyl compound in the glass.” Naomi Marks, a research scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California who deals extensively with uranium, concurs: “The uranium fluoresces under UV light because the UV excites the electrons above the ground state and gives off photons as the electrons transition back to the ground state. It wouldn’t make any difference whether the glass contained depleted uranium with the 235 isotope removed or natural uranium the chemistry is identical. Barrie Skelcher, who’s written multiple books on the subject of Vaseline Glass, explains that “It’s the chemistry of uranium that makes Vaseline glass glow, not radioactivity. ![]() While it is true that uranium can glow green, as so many cartoons portray it doing, in reality, it takes a truly unsafe level of radiation to produce said glow-far more than the harmless trace amounts found in Vaseline Glass. Indeed, the distinctive glow of this greenish-yellow coloured glass (which is visible under ultraviolet light) actually has nothing to do with its radioactivity, contrary to the long-held beliefs of many avid collectors. ![]() The science of its composition and the mystery of its origins holds a fascination all of their own, one which easily rivals the magnetism created by the well-known radioactivity of this beloved Art Deco collectible. While we have previously discussed the safety and basic history of that most enticingly eerie of fin de siecle and early 20 th century glass varieties-Uranium or “Vaseline” glass-in our piece Uranium Glass: Haunting Green Beauty, there is much more that remains to be said about this unique and controversial form of art glass.
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