Early Uranium Glass

This video has been created discuss and demonstrate early Uranium Glass. Uranium was separated as an element in 1789 and this video is about its deepest darkest days of use as a colourant for glass. Also, lots of spooky bits too.
The books I show in this video are:
Dictionary of British Antique Glass, authored by Douglas Ash
The Manufacture of Glass, authored by L.M. Angus-Butterworth.
If you like this video, please like and subscribe as I will be producing more videos on the subject of antique glass.
Check out my web site: www.lovedecante...
I also have a Love Decanters Instagram account.
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#uranium_glass

[@LindaB651]

I'm a US mudlarker/beachcomber, and have a small collection of uranium glass, picked up at the beach from early 20th century hurricane ruins, which is much enjoyed (the glass, not the hurricane.) As an artist of wire and found glass jewelry, it's dear to me. For US Mother's Day, 2020, my daughter gifted me with a vintage ring of faceted stones, cut from green uranium glass and set into a a standard silver mount, knowing it was my favorite. In normal house light, they just look like clear green gems, but in sunlight, a bit more bright, and under a wood's light/blacklight, they glow vivid green!

[@lesleyhudson2761]

Love the glasses.

[@stephenholmes5362]

Interesting, especially that salt! Thanks for doing these and I hope & pray your fan base grows & grows.

[@goodgoddygod]

We were astonished that when we used blacklight on a vase we knew is uranium glass, suddenly the lightblue french siphon also began to glow. So it is not only the yellow or green glass.

[@lovedecanters7891]

I was a little surprised when the pedestal salt boat glowed. It actually becomes completely opaque so it must have a lot in it.

[@ericjurgensen9233]

Thanks from the USA! Great video! I love early glass!

[@dianegreen6635]

Beautiful pieces. Thanks

[@lisap3883]

Have a few pieces and a little black light in my handbag for car boot sales. A fun thing to look out for. Thanks for the knowledge,

[@rossmanIVXX]

I'm in the USA I've got tons of EAPG that's uranium. But I've got two vases that are probably Stevens and Williams from the 1890s. From what I've seen there's alot of yellow vaseline glass that was made in England during the late Victorian period.

[@lovedecanters7891]

Check out my other video, Whitefriars Uranium Glass. It has Victorian yellow uranium glass, but it’s probably nothing like your Stevens and Williams vases.

[@nannerz1994]

This was great and really informative!

[@buhaywelderOfficial]

thats awesome👍👍👍

[@spencerw1014]

Great video, I have a few pieces of Uranium glass, just cheap common pieces from the early 20th century😊

[@lovedecanters7891]

If you go to the 20th century glass website, he has catalogues for Sowerby and for Davidsons. You might be able to ID your glass there.

[@ajacks1349]

Certainly the collecting of Uranium glass is far more popular in the US but there a few of us here in the UK too, with too many sellers now aware of its collectibility...lol. I've now got around 50 Uranium glass pieces now in my UV strip lit cabinet, which is near full...& it's a great talking point. From British George Davidson, Henry Greener, Jobling, Bagley etc, to US Fenton, Westmoreland, Hazel Atlas & Venetian Murano then Bohemian Czech dark amber bowl which turns bright green under UV & registers the highest radioactive activity with my geiger counters of all the pieces I own. Fascinating, multifaceted topics with these pieces & I'm no glass collector. The ONLY safety concern I have & which has not been answered to my satisfaction, is with regard to the RADON & its progeny potential for contamination, as natural uranium oxides were used in most pieces I think. Only when DU is used that there would be no RADIUM present to decay to RADON etc. The direct emissions don't concern me from mainly beta particles, as they're stopped by the cabinet glass & have limited range anyway.

[@lovedecanters7891]

I definitely noticed that pieces that are uranium green or yellow definitely have some price premium. I’m definitely going to do a video about the chemistry/physics/danger of uranium glass. Everything I’ve read so far say it’s really low on the risk spectrum. I’m probably more at risk going in the cellar of my 1930s house as I live in a radon area.

[@ajacks1349]

@@lovedecanters7891 There are rarer blue, pink & amber Uranium pieces around too apparently. As mentioned, I've got this really heavy (19cm approx @ 2.5Kg+) Czech bowl on a pedestal in dark amber with a nicely cut floral pattern & no one would know that it was a Uranium glass till of course illuminated with a UV light & confirmed with a geiger counter...13uSv/h in this case on contact, when 2nd highest (standard yellow/green) is around 8uSv/h. Most though are around half that (4uSv/h) & this quoted "dose rate" is not accurate as my GM counter detects alpha, beta & gamma emissions plus that relates to full body dose, which this is not. But the measurements do give an excellent relative indication of activity between pieces. As far as safety is concerned, I've not seen any article specific to radon & more importantly its progeny (decay daughters) contamination though over time in a confined domestic environment. I did contact an expert at the "health physics society" in the US & though he did admit that RADON would be released over time, it isn't a health risk...hmmm, hardly scientific. The levels may be tiny but what is the effect over time, when RADON & its progeny sticks to household dust, which can be inhaled & ingested? There are several YT's in the US that have huge collections of these pieces but haven't a clue about what they're dealing with. What we need are competent studies & the open communication of all the facts. There are a few articles claiming to address the safety aspects on the web but the info is usually conflicting & written by amateurs, as well as dealing with only the direct radiation from the pieces, which is mainly low energy beta particles, with a little in the way of alpha articles & a little gamma rays. They do tend to advise against using the pieces for their intended purposes such a eating/drinking from or storage of food/drinks, because of the risk of Uranium etc LEACHING, but that's practically it as far as they're concerned. That's straightforward but isn't the FULL picture unfortunately. If you can do a video on that, that would be of tremendous help...but its a very complex topic. As I understand it, the Uranium oxides used were derived from natural Uranium which will contain Radium albeit in tiny quantities, though higher than trace? Depleted Uranium is regarded as having been stripped of Radium etc etc, but that didn't come till well after WW2.

[@lovedecanters7891]

@@ajacks1349 thanks for this info. I’ve seen similar concerns about using leaded glasses, but seeing as my oldest piece of leaded glass is about 300 years old and shows no physical signs of deterioration any leaching is probably not measurable in a meaningful way. Also, in my younger life I’ve lived with lead pipes, lead paint and petrol had lead in it that was burnt straight into the air, I think glass was the least of my worries.

[@ajacks1349]

@@lovedecanters7891 Absolutely...but there's a double whammy here with the material also being radioactive, being taken into the body where it can cause damage by radiating the soft tissues, as well as the chemical poisoning, with it also being a heavy metal. Certainly won't cause radiation sickness associated with a nuclear incident but probably increases the risk of cancer. Anyway, if you can dig up more info from reliable sources regarding Radon & its potential for contaminating a living space with its progeny (particularly Polonium210), I'd be delighted to hear about it...thanks again.

[@RurouniHeero]

​@@ajacks1349 The thing is, the radiation levels are so low, that even in direct contact of soft tissue the ionizing radiation energy levels are too low to actually affect cells in a period of time that would endanger us. In the cases of uranium miners that were inhaling large quantities of dust, it's the amount that matters and those were very high, as some miners were more threatened and were sick because of uranium is toxic, so radiation was the least of their concerns. As for radon, you can check the largest uranium glass collection in the world. For investigation purposes, the same air quality tests were conducted to see if radon was accumulating while creating radioactive dust from its daughters as it decays over around 3.8 days, and resulted in normal levels, lower than the average basement, even with more than 7000 pieces.

[@funky_junkie]

Great for a party trick.

[@karensioux1244]

I like the wine glasses. Is it safe to drink from uranium glass? I ordered a uranium wine glass online to use for drinking but I’m hearing from other people not to use.

[@lovedecanters7891]

I think it’s pretty safe. The amount of uranium needed is small, and the proportion of the which that is actually radio active is tiny. I don’t recommend grinding it into power and eating it, but the lead would probably get first in that instance. I have seen a talk on it, and I can’t remember the exact details as it was a long time ago, but there are lots of background sources of radiation that are worse for you.

[@karensioux1244]

@@lovedecanters7891 thank you 😊

[@jjdjj5392]

Cool! How much are those pieces worth?

[@lovedecanters7891]

I’m in the UK and being uranium glass doesn’t hold a particular premium. I think the salt boat would be about £35, and the glasses I showed about £25 each. I’m going to show some more expensive stuff, but the cost there will be about the maker.

[@roryreid3124]

What is a good book to identify uranium glass manufacturers and their products in the U.S. or anywhere else ? I have a small decanter but the stopper is missing and i have no idea what it looks like or even who made it or when it was madeand i want it correct its a beautiful piece and it glows great makes my collection look good but i need the correct stopper (im picky that way lol) any help would be appreciated

[@lovedecanters7891]

I have no idea why KZbin didn’t show me this comment earlier, but you can email me pics at [e-mail]