Uranium glass, vaseline, canary - these are the names of products with the addition of uranium oxides as a dye. Radioactive products? How did it happen that household products were manufactured using the 92nd element (according to the periodic table of D. I. Mendeleev), the same as for the atomic bomb? It turns out that glass is extremely dangerous? Or is it still not?
What is uranium and its oxides?
The German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth in 1789 received the “new metal” from the black mineral mined in the Joachimstahl mines in Bohemia (modern Czech Republic), calling it uranium. He sincerely thought that it was pure metal - he did not begin to check this assumption in modern conditions. Why exactly "uranium"?
Just eight years earlier, in 1871, Frederick William Herschel (a German astronomer who worked in England) discovered a new planet in the solar system - the seventh. It is fifteen times the mass of the Earth. Herschel named it Uranus in honor of the ancient Greek mythological omnipotent wife of Gaia (Earth).
Only fifty years later, in 1841, the French chemist Eugene Peligo proved that the “new, eighteenth metal" obtained by Klaprot is oxide (in the composition - oxygen). Peligo received pure metal, but it was not he who entered the history of the discovery of uranium, but Klaprot.
Almost half a century before 1896, uranium was not in demand in metallurgy, and only after the discovery of the radioactivity of this element, scientists showed interest in it. But until 1939, when the results of nuclear fission experiments were published, uranium ores were mined only to produce radioactive radium.
Historical details
The use of natural uranium oxide in Europe dates back to the first century BC: fragments of ceramics covered with yellow glaze were found during excavations of Pompeii.
During archaeological work in Italy, in 1912, pieces of yellow mosaic were found on Cape Posilippo (Gulf of Naples) . Stained glass in its composition contained one percent of uranium oxide. This find dates back to 79 A.D.
For the production of enamels and mosaic glass of this period, ores from Africa were brought to Europe.
According to written sources from China that have reached us, local glassblowers experimented in the 16th and 17th centuries with the addition of uranium ores to give color to the glass. Uranium glass products of this period have not yet been found.
Natural metal oxides, which often accompanied the extraction of silver ores in Europe, were noticed by glassblowers - they tried to change the color of the glass a very long time ago.
Uranium glass: the beginning of a magnificent procession across countries
Habsburg silver mines located in Bohemia abounded with natural uranium ores - nasturan (uraninite). And, of course, glassmakers always wanted to use natural dye to get color products.
Representative of the third generation of the famous dynasty of Riedel craftsmen, Franz Xaver Anton, in the early nineteenth century experimented with filling color glass products. It was successful to add uranium oxides to the charge, a tint from yellow to deep green, and the uranium glass glowed greenish under the rays of the rising and setting suns, which gave it a kind of magical mystery.
Since 1830, the dynastic successor Josef Riedel (Franz’s nephew, who married his daughter), having studied the experimental data of his father-in-law, established high-tech production of yellow (various shades), green (to the darkest) and ruby uranium glass. Until 1848 (the year of the death of Joseph Riedel) production - vases, glasses, glasses, vials, buttons, beads - only increased.
At the same time, the English masters presented two colored candlesticks made of uranium glass as a gift to their Queen Victoria, which is documented. This fact suggests that, not only in the Czech Republic, but also in England, the masters worked out a new formulation for staining glass products.
Uranium Glass Items: Mass Production
Increasing production volumes throughout Europe (France, the Netherlands, Belgium, England) have made glass popular and fashionable. In the Czech Republic alone, over 1898 tons of all kinds of uranium glass products were produced at the Joachimstahl factories in Bohemia until 1898.
Since 1830, the Gusevsky plant in Russia also began production of similar products.
Yellow and green uranium glass was relatively inexpensive. For its release, barium and calcium mixture with the addition of potassium and boron were used, which gave a more intense glow.
Until 1896 (the discovery of radioactivity by A.A. Bekkerel), no one limited the extraction and use of uranium ores; there was only a buildup for the separation of radium from them.
Features
Uranium glass when absorbing UV rays transfers energy to another part of the radiation spectrum - green. Moreover, this secondary radiation is scattered without continuing the incident beam. This property is called fluorescence. This feature does not have all painted yellow and green products, but only uranium glass. Photos of objects under UV radiation prove the authenticity and collectible value of objects.
Dangerous neighborhood?
Uranium glass with a high degree of fluorescence should contain from 0.3 to 6% of uranium oxides. An increase in concentration decreases the luminescence, as well as the content of lead in the charge, but increases radioactivity (radiation).
Glassblowers, like everyone else until 1939, did not know about the toxicity of uranium and its radiation hazard. Direct contact with ores, prolonged exposure to them in dangerous proximity led to frequent obscure diseases, often ending in the death of craftsmen.
But products from uranium glass were distributed all over the world, and no one felt any discomfort and did not get sick, being next to them. Why?
The radiation level of uranium glass products is low - from 20 to 1500 μR / hour, the allowable background limit is 30 μR / hour. This means that if there are objects of uranium glass nearby, then you have to stand near them continuously for more than ten years to get radiation sickness.
Stopping Uranium Glass Production
Before the start of World War II, uranium was not interested in physicists. Only in 1939, when a chain reaction model was developed with the release of an enormous amount of energy, a nuclear bomb model was developed on the basis of uranium. And then the developed deposits of uranium ores were required.
The production of uranium glass was not stopped until almost the 50s of the twentieth century.
All uranium deposits in all countries were registered, and in England not only raw materials, but also finished products were withdrawn from manufacturers of “liquid paraffin”.
Currently, uranium glass is produced in minimal quantities in the USA and the Czech Republic. The dyes used are depleted uranium obtained in the process of enrichment of uranium for nuclear fuel. Uranium glassware, like other products, becomes at the same time quite expensive, while it remains quite popular.
How to identify uranium glass?
If you carefully review the stocks of old (Soviet times) utensils in grandmother's sideboards, in the country, in the attic, you can find yellow or green transparent dishes, which, perhaps, will glow in the rays of the early sun. Yellow or green salt shakers, ashtrays, vases, glasses, buttons, beads, even ancient green door (window) handles can become artifacts.
Flea markets have all of the above. Bargaining, you can become the owner of amazing rarities.
Make sure that these are items made of uranium glass, you need using a UV lamp and a Geiger counter. Only so do real collectors.
Uranium antiques
Due to the fact that uranium glass was mass produced, the population has preserved a large number of yellow and green objects. In some cases, they are of historical interest, sometimes - antique, collectible.
Uranium glass vases, presented in catalogs of galleries in many countries, are made in different styles, from Biedermeier (nineteenth century) to Art Deco (twentieth).
Figurines of animals and birds made of uranium glass, bottles and cups, tableware - plates, saucers, saucers, glasses, wine sets are also of interest to collectors.
Uranium Products in the USA
In English-speaking countries, uranium glass in the twentieth century began to be called "petroleum jelly" due to the similarity of color with the common ointment of the same name. Glass, except for transparent yellow and green, has subspecies - carnival (with multi-colored inserts), Depression glass (all products, regardless of style, released in the USA during the Great Depression), brewed (opaque pale yellow), jadeite (opaque pale green), Burmese (opaque with shades of pale pink to yellow).
Where else have uranium ore additives been used?
Na 2 U 2 O 7 - sodium uranate - was used by the painters as a yellow pigment. For painting porcelain and ceramics (glaze, enamels) in black, brown, green and yellow, uranium oxides of varying degrees of oxidation were used. Uranyl nitrate was used at the beginning of the twentieth century in photography - for enhancing negatives and for tinting, staining positives in brown.