paleomaxx
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- Aug 14, 2016
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In many thousands of plugs that I've dug, this is far and away the weirdest thing that has popped out.
I was digging for a large deep signal (ended up being iron sheet at about 10"), but when I flipped the plug over this literally fell out. It's a solid glass cube with beveled edges. Here it is again under normal light:
And here it is under UV light:
So awesome! I had a hunch that it was uranium glass (also knows as vaseline or depression glass) when I dug it, but the fluorescence under UV light is an easy test to confirm it. This type of glass was popular from the 1880's to 1920's and was made by adding uranium dioxide to the glass to impart the characteristic yellow/green color. That does make it mildly radioactive, but the uranium is chemically bonded to the glass so under normal conditions it can't leach out or cause any harm.
It was used for all sorts of decorative glassware, but most of what I've seen up until now were plates, vases, and bowls. This is the first I've ever seen that's just a purely decorative cube, but I guess it could have been a paperweight or a sample piece put out by the glass-works to show off their product.
I found a few other less odd, but still fun pieces during the hunt. My first full utensil set!
There was also this very neat cast iron toy plane.
This larger button has a brass front, but an iron back and sounds hollow.
This was also a strange find. I found these pewter fragments broken apart, but close together and the same area and the design looks a little like the US treasury off the older $10 bill reverse engraving. Does that seem accurate?
At any rate, quite the memorable hunt and I'm eagerly awaiting more rain so I can hit some of the deeper signals in this yard!
I was digging for a large deep signal (ended up being iron sheet at about 10"), but when I flipped the plug over this literally fell out. It's a solid glass cube with beveled edges. Here it is again under normal light:
And here it is under UV light:
So awesome! I had a hunch that it was uranium glass (also knows as vaseline or depression glass) when I dug it, but the fluorescence under UV light is an easy test to confirm it. This type of glass was popular from the 1880's to 1920's and was made by adding uranium dioxide to the glass to impart the characteristic yellow/green color. That does make it mildly radioactive, but the uranium is chemically bonded to the glass so under normal conditions it can't leach out or cause any harm.
It was used for all sorts of decorative glassware, but most of what I've seen up until now were plates, vases, and bowls. This is the first I've ever seen that's just a purely decorative cube, but I guess it could have been a paperweight or a sample piece put out by the glass-works to show off their product.
I found a few other less odd, but still fun pieces during the hunt. My first full utensil set!
There was also this very neat cast iron toy plane.
This larger button has a brass front, but an iron back and sounds hollow.
This was also a strange find. I found these pewter fragments broken apart, but close together and the same area and the design looks a little like the US treasury off the older $10 bill reverse engraving. Does that seem accurate?
At any rate, quite the memorable hunt and I'm eagerly awaiting more rain so I can hit some of the deeper signals in this yard!
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