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Glowing Glass

timekiller

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Recently i had a black light out messing around and noticed that it was making a jar of old marbles glow,and found that alot of old bottles,and glass dishes i have found from late 1800's also glowed.Iguess it's something they used to make the glass with.Wondered if any body knew what causes this!
 

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Check the glass with a geiger counter...might be too hot or outside of the safe zone.

There was a time that radium was used to paint glow-in-the-dark numbers on watches...they also were classified as being a potential health hazard.
 
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On a side note concerning radiation, there has been an unethical practice of "nuking" glass, particularly insulators and bottles, to make them a more desirable/expensive color. Here is a link from the National Insulator Association that goes into particulars about this unethical practice: http://www.nia.org/altered/ . Just a word of caution to anybody that ebays or buys from other online auction houses and you see something that looks to good to be true.

BTW timekiller...I love collecting old marbles too. Seems I find them everywhere I go MD. I've amassed quite a few of them, even some from what looks like clay. Later. HH
 
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I wouldn't worry too much about being exposed to radiation from your marbles.

First of all the coloring agent used in glass marbles is not the unstable and radioactive element uranium, but the more stable compound URANIUM DIOXIDE.
Secondly, this uranium compound is only 1% to 2% per volume of the glass. Finally, and most importantly, it is the medium, glass itself, which contributes to the safety of Vaseline Glass.

Now the color altered insulators are a different story.
 
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