# Radioactive Glass!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioactive-glass/433350
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [January 13, 2008, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioactive-glass/433350 "2008-01-13T02:31:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2008, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioactive-glass/433350/1 "2008-01-13T02:31:57Z")
Now that I have your attention, I’d like to[show off some of my favorite pieces](http://homepage.mac.com/mactechg4/PhotoAlbum42.html) of [Vaseline Glass](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_glass)
the cake dish was something we’ve had in our family for a long time, and it’s the piece that got me started collecting the stuff, occasionally, I’ll grab my purple MiniMag with the 1 watt Cree UV LED in it, and go out to the local antique shops and hunt for Vaseline Glass
the three-sectioned condiment dish is what I picked up today, and it flouresces the most intensely of all my Vaseline glass items
the greenish-yellow color of VG is caused by 1-2% Uranium Dioxide in the mix, when hit with UV, it glows green, and yes, VG is faintly radioactive, but no more than granite rocks, or normal background radiation, Uranium Dioxide is a weak Alpha particle emitter, and the glass stops most of that anyway
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### Author:  [@DeathLlama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeathLlama)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2008, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioactive-glass/433350/2 "2008-01-13T03:28:20Z")
I feel a little geeky for this, but that’s just cool. I’m gonna go check that old yellowish/greenish glass orange juicer thing I’ve got. That is, I’ll do that just as soon as I find a cree something with a uv something for my mini something-or-other.
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### Author:  [@Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirror_Image_egamI_rorriM)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2008, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioactive-glass/433350/3 "2008-01-13T03:35:20Z")
I have several uranium glass marbles in my fish tank.
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### Author:  [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2008, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioactive-glass/433350/4 "2008-01-13T04:51:29Z")
[QUOTE=DeathLlama]
I feel a little geeky for this, but that’s just cool. I’m gonna go check that old yellowish/greenish glass orange juicer thing I’ve got. That is, I’ll do that just as soon as I find a cree something with a uv something for my mini something-or-other.
[/QUOTE]
you’ll need a 2AA incandescent Mini Maglite, [Here’s the UV emitter module](http://www.batteryjunction.com/miulvikitwi1.html), the supplied reflector sucks, you’re better off using [a 3/4" acrylic ball](http://theledguy.chainreactionweb.com/product_info.php?cPath=48_50_65&products_id=134) to collomate the beam into a tight square hotspot
if you want a cheaper way out, there’s always [this flashlight](http://www.lighthound.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1543)
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### Author:  [@DeathLlama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeathLlama)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioactive-glass/433350/5 "2008-01-14T03:50:13Z")
Uh… I don’t suppose just a regular old black light would work, would it?
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioactive-glass/433350/6 "2008-01-14T04:08:50Z")
[QUOTE=MacTech]
if you want a cheaper way out, there’s always [this flashlight](http://www.lighthound.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1543)
[/QUOTE]
“Spotting scorpions”? Why is a UV flashlight good for spotting scorpions?
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioactive-glass/433350/7 "2008-01-14T04:14:43Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace]
“Spotting scorpions”? Why is a UV flashlight good for spotting scorpions?
[/QUOTE]
They fluoresce quite brightly.
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioactive-glass/433350/8 "2008-01-14T04:18:31Z")
[QUOTE=beowulff]
They fluoresce quite brightly.
[/QUOTE]
Weird and interesting! I see this after wikiing for UV light and blacklight and other things.
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### Author:  [@FateHappens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FateHappens)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioactive-glass/433350/9 "2008-01-14T04:19:40Z")
Radioactive glass has been around a long time. Some micas are radioactive, and were used as church windows.
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### Author:  [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioactive-glass/433350/10 "2008-01-14T15:07:30Z")
[QUOTE=DeathLlama]
Uh… I don’t suppose just a regular old black light would work, would it?
[/QUOTE]
Yes, yes it would, but where’s the fun in that, it’s more fun to cobble together some kludgy gizmo that does the same thing…
besides, how are you going to bring a standard AC powered black light into antique shops, and where are you going to plug it in? what about multi-room group shops?
I suppose you could get a handheld battery-powered flourescent black light, the flashlight’s just an easier form factor
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### Author:  [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioactive-glass/433350/11 "2008-01-14T15:37:34Z")
Man, I’m bummed. The more highly radioactive dishes I grew up with don’t fluoresce at all. (Darn that red Fiestaware.) Still, way cool.
If I ever get into flea marketing again, I’ll have to cobble one of those lights together.
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioactive-glass/433350/12 "2008-01-14T16:04:53Z")
[QUOTE=Mirror Image egamI rorriM]
I have several uranium glass marbles in my fish tank.
[/QUOTE]
Have your fish grown extra eyes or feet yet?
A guy I knew in high school used to collect that old radioactive red FiestaWare.
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### Author:  [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioactive-glass/433350/13 "2008-01-14T18:38:58Z")
[is captivated by the shiny]
That’s really neat! I’d heard of Vaseline glass but had never seen it before.
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### Author:  [@Sal\_Ammoniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sal_Ammoniac)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioactive-glass/433350/14 "2008-01-14T18:43:11Z")
Okay, color me impressed. Do you display them under black light? You really should!
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### Author:  [@DeathLlama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeathLlama)
#### Post date: [January 14, 2008, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/radioactive-glass/433350/15 "2008-01-14T22:44:14Z")
[QUOTE=MacTech]
Yes, yes it would, but where’s the fun in that, it’s more fun to cobble together some kludgy gizmo that does the same thing…
besides, how are you going to bring a standard AC powered black light into antique shops…
[/QUOTE]
I’m not into cobbling anything else together (my life already feels like one big cobble), BUT dragging an AC black light into an antique store…that sounds like fun. I picture someone maneuvering one of those 8-ft long (or however long) jobbies, balast and all, with a couple of black light tubes, trailing an extension cord up and down the narrow aisles of old and fragile glass and what not (you know, and have someone else shooting video of all the strange looks you get). THAT would be the fun. Oh, and actually finding some radioactive glass…that would be cool, too.