Welcome to brain stuff production of iHeart radio Hey brain stuff learned bolba blam here way before its radioactive properties were discovered and exploited for both good I think nuclear power and bad think nuclear war, and way before it was officially granted its place among the elements of the
periodic table. The rare metal uranium was used by ancient Romans to color glass back in seventy nine or so, and neither radioactivity nor uranium meant anything to the Romans or anyone The concepts as such simply didn't exist yet neither did Uranus, the planet for which uranium is named. For that matter, but the small glowing glass tiles in some mosaics and tricked out Roman villas they were pretty cool. Yes, the Romans used uranium in their glass, and the mode
versions of the stuff still exists. It goes by a few different names and is even still being produced in small quantities in Europe, but it's more of a curio now than anything else, found in the form of pictures and bowls and other glassware in flea markets, dusty attics, museums, and among glass collectors. Glass to achieve added uranium will look translucent, yellowish green under normal light, or it can be colored other shades of translucent or opaque, but under
ultraviolet light it fluoresces bright green. I think the color used for Nuclear Goo and Atomic Age, horror illustrations, or the Ninja Turtles or the Simpsons. For the article this episode is based on How Stuff Works. Spoke with Paul Frame, a retired health physicist at Tennessee's oak Ridge Associated Universities, which is a consortium of schools founded after World War
Two as the oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies. For years, Frame was also the curator at the consortium's Health Physics Historical Instrumentation Museum, also known as the Museum of Radiation and Radioactivity, which chronicles the scientific and commercial history of radioactivity and radiation. Frame said, it is kind of attractive because it has that ear doesn't glow to it under
certain lighting conditions. It really looks kind of special. There are some people out there that are particularly interested in it because it's radioactive, and there are other people who just collect glassware, the styles and so forth. But there's so much of this stuff out there that despite the fact that there's a variety of people that are interested in it, it really doesn't have a lot of value unless it's a particularly unique piece of glassware, size, design, artistry,
that kind of thing. Uranium glass is also known as vasoline glass because that translucent yellowish green reminded some people of Vasoline brand petroleum jelly, and it certainly has its die hard fans. Some collectors and deficionados of the stuff gather every year for conventions to buy, sell, show off, and learn about uranium glass pieces. One convention was in
its twenty second year. In addition, some antique shops and exchanges feature large collections of the glowing, sometimes eerie looking glass. Uranium was identified as an element in sevent nine, and Austrian glassmakers are credited with knowingly producing the first uranium glass around eighteen thirty. In World War Two, the US
government restricted the use of uranium for coloring glass. It was thought that the uranium might be needed for nuclear weapons, a band that lasted until the latter part of ninety which brings us to an interesting question. Is uranium glass radioactive?
In a word, yes, uranium glass is indeed radioactive. That said, there's no need to run for the hills or the nearest bomb shelter frame said it's absolutely true we're dealing with with vaseline glass is something that is radioactive just like everything else, and it is more radioactive than the majority of things, and that you can detect the radioactivity of vassline or uranium glass with a handheld meter like
a Geiger counter. Is the radioactivity from uranium glass strong enough to say, morph someone into a big green, angry guy or a part kid, part a rachnoid, or strong enough to make you sick or kill you. Basically, no Frame offered up a quick history lesson, he said. Marie Curry got these more residues from the Czech Republic back in the day, and she extracted the uranium, but discovered what was left behind was even more radioactive than the
uranium itself. The material that made the residues most radioactive turned out to be radium, not the uranium. So in uranium or you have this whole host of radioactive stuff and the key player there is really radium. A radium to uranium itself is not all that radioactive. Still Frame will admit there may be some incredibly small risk involved with uranium glass. He said, it's basically a theoretical risk.
The radioactive exposures you get from flying in an airplane or inhaling air in your home which has rate on in it, they're so much greater than any dose that anyone's going to get from uranium or vasoline glass. There is, for all practical purposes no risk, zero risk, which for collectors and admirers is good news, because blast that glows is just cool. Today's episode is based on the article how uranium glass Got its glow on on how stuff
works dot Com, written by John Donovan. Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and it is produced by Tyler Playing with assistance from Ramsey Young. For more podcasts for My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. M