#4: Uranium Glass

Last week I visited my grandparents in Frederick Maryland where my grandma owns a large collection of very old glassware. As I was looking through the many pieces she owned, I found something that sparked my interest. I read a book recently about the many ways that dangerous chemicals have been used throughout the past hundred years. The book talked specifically about the use of toxic and radioactive substances in dyes for glassware. With this in mind, I noticed one piece that I thought might be example of this.

It was a small dirty-green pitcher made in Czechoslovakia sometime before the 1950s. According to my book and wikipedia, there is a high likelihood that it was dyed using uranium ore (uranium oxide). This so-called "uranium glass" was very popular during the 20th century and was said to contain large amounts of radioactive uranium. Due to the fact that I don't own a Geiger counter, all I can do is speculate. While the possibility seems wild, the use of uranium as a glass dye was not uncommon and really wasn't dangerous as radiation levels were low.

Green glassware from Czechoslovakia possibly containing radioactive uranium.

To read more about uranium glass...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_glass