Radium glass vs uranium glass driver#
Radium glass vs uranium glass full#

That may come as a surprise to many Vaseline glass collectors, who assume that radioactivity is the reason why Vaseline glass glows under ultraviolet light, confusing the cartoon depiction of radioactivity for the science. Photo via Dave Peterson at Įven if radioactivity is the thing that makes Vaseline glass cool, it’s not what makes Vaseline glass glow, says Barrie Skelcher, who’s written two Vaseline glass books of his own. of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, produced novelty items like this wheelbarrow, which could have been used as a salt or to hold matches.

Radium glass vs uranium glass full#

“It’s glass that does tricks,” he says, as full of affection for the stuff today as he was several decades ago, when he saw his first photo of a toothpick holder performing Vaseline glass’s most famous trick, glowing under a black light.ĭuring the Victorian Era, glassmakers such as Adams & Co. Others, like Dave Peterson, who co-founded Vaseline Glass Collectors, Inc., in 1998 and has written three books on the topic, gravitated to the material for more down-to-earth reasons. Some are drawn to its perceived menace so they can pat themselves on the back for not being intimidated by its unfairly toxic reputation. Still, in our post-Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Chernobyl, and Fukushima world, radioactivity gives Vaseline glass a certain badass cachet. None of this matters, either, but you’ve probably figured that out by now. If you are really worried about the trace amounts of radiation in Vaseline glass, you’d do better to stop putting bananas on your yogurt, to cut out all those healthy spinach salads, and to stay very far away from baked potatoes, all of which are packed with blood-pressure-lowering, radioactive potassium. In fact, there’s more radioactive potassium-40 inside each and every one of us than anyone could ever receive from handling, using, or just plain eyeballing a piece, display case, or entire museum full of Vaseline glass. The beds we sleep in are radioactive the lawns we sprawl out on during the dog days of summer are, too. Photo via Vaseline Glassware by Barrie Skelcher. The piece at left contains no uranium at all, while the dark piece at bottom-center contains the most of the group. Photo via Dave Peterson at Top: The relationship between a piece of glass’s propensity to glow and its uranium content is often not predictable. We receive a daily dose of radioactive contamination from the gamma rays that make it through our atmosphere after hurtling through outer space, from the naturally occurring radionuclides present in the ground we walk upon, from the background radiation lingering in the materials used to build the places we call our homes.Ībove: Flower vases made at the Thomas Webb & Sons factory in England. Our bodies are subjected to many times more radiation every day. Yes, canary glass, uranium glass, or Vaseline glass, as it became known in the early 20th century for its similar color to petroleum jelly, emits radiation, but the amounts are tiny, infinitesimal, ridiculously small. After slaking your children’s thirst, carefully rinse those tumblers by hand to absorb sponge after sponge of even greater concentrations of radioactivity.įor the record, none of this matters, not even a little bit. Now you’ve exposed your innocent lambs to even more radiation, since minute traces of the uranium in the glass can leach into whatever your kids are drinking, coating their throats and stomach linings with a cool, radioactive wash. Go ahead and fill those tumblers with orange juice or milk, then serve these wholesome beverages to your adorable children. Well, you just bought yourself four tumblers full of radioactive beta-waves. Let’s say you’re that tchotchkes dealer’s customer, and you decide to purchase those tumblers because you think their hue will go nicely with your lemony Formica kitchen table. “If radioactivity is the thing that makes Vaseline glass cool, it’s not what makes Vaseline glass glow.”

Radium glass vs uranium glass driver#

It doesn’t matter whether you’re the gaffer making footed cake plates in a glass factory, the driver loading boxes of lace-edged compotes onto a truck, or the tchotchkes dealer setting out vintage Vaseline glass toothpick holders and tumblers for prospective customers-all of you are being zapped. Everyone who collects Vaseline glass knows it’s got uranium in it, which means everyone who comes in contact with Vaseline glass understands they’re being irradiated. Vaseline glass gets its oddly urinous color from radioactive uranium, which causes it to glow under a black light. That’s the catch-all word describing pressed, pattern, and blown glass in shades ranging from canary yellow to avocado green. For many glass collectors, the only color that matters is Vaseline.