Uranium glass. Products from uranium glass (photo)

Uranium glass, vaseline, canary is the name of products with the addition of uranium oxides as a colorant. Radioactive products? How did it happen that the products for everyday life were made using the 92nd element (according to the periodic table of DI Mendeleev), the same as for the atomic bomb? It turns out that glass is extremely dangerous? Or is it not?

What is uranium and its oxides?

German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaprot in 1789 received a "new metal" from the black mineral mined in the mines of Joachimsthal in Bohemia (modern Czech Republic), calling it uranium. He sincerely thought that it was pure metal - he did not check this assumption in modern conditions. Why uranium?

Just eight years earlier, in 1871, Frederick William Herschel (a German astronomer who worked in England) discovered the new planet of the solar system - the seventh. It was fifteen times more massive than the Earth. Herschel called it Uranus in honor of the ancient Greek mythological omnipotent wife Gaia (Earth).

It was only fifty years later, in 1841, that the French chemist Eugène Peligo proved that the "new, eighteenth metal" received by Klaproth is oxide (in the composition - oxygen). Peligo received pure metal, but he did not enter the history of the discovery of uranium, but Klaproth.

Almost half a century before 1896, uranium was not in demand in metallurgy, and only after the discovery of the radioactivity of this element was the interest of scientists. But before 1939, when the results of experiments on the splitting of the nucleus were published, uranium ore was extracted only for obtaining radioactive radium.

Historical details

The use of natural uranium oxide in Europe dates back to the first century BC: fragments of ceramics coated with yellow glaze were found during the excavation of Pompeii.

During the archaeological work in Italy on the Cape of Posilippo (Neapolitan Bay) in 1912, pieces of a yellow mosaic were found. Color glass in its composition contained one percent of uranium oxide. This find is dated to 79 AD.

For the production of enamels and mosaic glass of this period, ore from Africa was brought to Europe.

According to the written sources from China, local glass-blowing masters experimented in the 16th and 17th centuries with the addition of uranium ores to give color shades to glass. Products from uranium glass of this period have not yet been found.

Natural metal oxides, which often accompanied the extraction of silver ores in Europe, were noticed by glass blowers - attempts to change the color of glass were made by them for a very long time.

Uranium glass: the beginning of a magnificent procession through the countries

Silver Habsburg mines, located in Bohemia, abounded with natural uranium ores _­ - nasturanom (uraninite). And, of course, the masters of glass factories have always wanted to use natural dye to get color products. The representative of the third generation of the famous dynasty of masters Riedel, Franz Xaver Anton, at the beginning of the nineteenth century experimented with the filling of glass with color. Successful was the addition of uranium oxides to the charge, a shade was obtained from yellow to deep green, and the uranium glass under the rays of the rising and setting sun was greenish, giving it some magical mystery.

Since 1830, the dynastic successor Josef Riedel (Franz's nephew, married to his daughter), having studied the experimental data of his father-in-law, established a high-tech production of yellow (different shades), green (to the darkest) and ruby uranium glass. Until 1848 (the year of Josef Riedel's death) the production of vases, glasses, glasses, bubbles, buttons, beads - Only increased.

At the same time, the British masters presented as a gift to their Queen Victoria two colored candlesticks made of uranium glass, which has been documented. This fact gives grounds to assume that not only in the Czech Republic, but also in England, the masters practiced a new formulation of dyeing glass products.

Uranium Glassware: Mass Production

Increasing production volumes throughout Europe (France, Netherlands, Belgium, England) made glass popular and fashionable. In Czech alone, at Joachimshtahl plants in Bohemia, before 1898, more than 1,600 tons of all kinds of uranium glassware were produced.

Since 1830 the Gusev plant in Russia has also started the production of similar products.

Yellow and green uranium glass was relatively inexpensive. For its release, a barium and calcium charge was used with the addition of potassium and boron, which gave a more intense glow.

Until 1896 (the discovery of radioactivity by A. A. Becquerel), nobody restricted the extraction and use of uranium ores, only the build-up took place to separate radium from them.

Features

Uranium glass when absorbing UV rays transfers energy to another area of the emission spectrum - green. And this secondary radiation is dissipated without continuing the incident beam. This property is called fluorescence. This feature is not all painted yellow and green products, but only uranium glass. A photo of subjects under UV radiation proves the authenticity and collectivity of objects.

A dangerous neighborhood?

Uranium glass with a high degree of fluorescence should contain from 0.3 to 6% of uranium oxides. Increasing the concentration reduces the luminescence, as well as the content of lead in the charge, but increases the radioactivity (radiation).

The glassblowers, like everyone else before 1939, did not know about the toxicity of uranium and its radiation hazard. Direct contact with ores, a long stay with them in dangerous proximity led to frequent incomprehensible diseases, often ending with the death of masters.

But the products of uranium glass spread throughout the world, and no one felt any discomfort and did not fall ill, being next to them. Why?

The radiation level of products from uranium glass is low - from 20 to 1500 microR / hour, the allowable background limit is 30 microR / hour. This means that, if a number of objects from uranium glass, then you have to stand beside them continuously for more than ten years to get radiation sickness.

Termination of production of uranium glass

Before the outbreak of the Second World War, uranium was not interested in physicists. Only in 1939, when a model of the chain reaction was developed with the release of a colossal amount of energy, a nuclear bomb model was developed on the basis of uranium. And then developed uranium ore deposits 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, the producers of "vaseline glass" were seized not only the raw materials, but also finished products.

To date, uranium glass is produced in minimum quantities in the US and Czech Republic. As the dyes, depleted uranium is used, which is obtained in the process of enriching uranium for nuclear fuel. Glassware from uranium glass, like other products, is at the same time expensive, while it remains quite popular.

How to determine uranium glass?

If you carefully review the stocks of the old (Soviet-era) dishes in the grandmother's sideboards, at the cottage, in the attic, you can find a yellow or green transparent dish, which, perhaps, will glow in the rays of the early sun. Artifacts can be yellow or green saltcellars, ashtrays, vases, glasses, buttons, beads, even old eelen door (window) handles.

The flea markets have all of the above. Bargaining, you can become the owner of delightful rarities.

Make sure that these are items from uranium glass, you need to use a UV lamp and a Geiger counter. Only in this way do real collectors.

Uranium antiques

Due to the fact that the uranium glass was mass-produced, a large number of objects of yellow and green color remained in the population. In some cases, they are of historical interest, sometimes - antique, collection.

Vases from uranium glass, presented in catalogs of galleries of many countries, are made in different styles, from Biedermeier (nineteenth century) to Art Deco (twentieth).

Collectors are also interested in figurines of animals and birds from uranium glass, bottles and cups, tableware - plates, saucers, saucers, glasses, sets for wine.

Uranium products in the USA

In English-speaking countries, uranium glass in the twentieth century became known as "vaseline" because of the similarity of color with the same-common ointment. Glass, except for the transparent yellow and green, has subspecies - carnival (with colored inserts), glass Depression (all products, regardless of style, released in the US during the Great Depression), custard (opaque pale yellow), jadeite (opaque pale- Green), Burmese (opaque with shades of pale pink to yellow).

Where else were additives from uranium ore used?

Na ₂ U ₂ O ₇ - sodium uranate - was used by painters as a yellow pigment. For the painting of porcelain and ceramics (glaze, enamels) in black, brown, green and yellow colors, uranium oxides of different degree of oxidation were used. Uronalilnitrate was used in the early twentieth century in photography - to enhance the negatives and for toning, staining the positives in brown.