Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff production of iHeart radio Hey brain
Speaker 1: stuff learned bolba blam here way before its radioactive properties
Speaker 1: were discovered and exploited for both good I think nuclear
Speaker 1: power and bad think nuclear war, and way before it
Speaker 1: was officially granted its place among the elements of the
Speaker 1: periodic table. The rare metal uranium was used by ancient
Speaker 1: Romans to color glass back in seventy nine or so,
Speaker 1: and neither radioactivity nor uranium meant anything to the Romans
Speaker 1: or anyone The concepts as such simply didn't exist yet
Speaker 1: neither did Uranus, the planet for which uranium is named.
Speaker 1: For that matter, but the small glowing glass tiles in
Speaker 1: some mosaics and tricked out Roman villas they were pretty cool. Yes,
Speaker 1: the Romans used uranium in their glass, and the mode
Speaker 1: versions of the stuff still exists. It goes by a
Speaker 1: few different names and is even still being produced in
Speaker 1: small quantities in Europe, but it's more of a curio
Speaker 1: now than anything else, found in the form of pictures
Speaker 1: and bowls and other glassware in flea markets, dusty attics, museums,
Speaker 1: and among glass collectors. Glass to achieve added uranium will
Speaker 1: look translucent, yellowish green under normal light, or it can
Speaker 1: be colored other shades of translucent or opaque, but under
Speaker 1: ultraviolet light it fluoresces bright green. I think the color
Speaker 1: used for Nuclear Goo and Atomic Age, horror illustrations, or
Speaker 1: the Ninja Turtles or the Simpsons. For the article this
Speaker 1: episode is based on How Stuff Works. Spoke with Paul Frame,
Speaker 1: a retired health physicist at Tennessee's oak Ridge Associated Universities,
Speaker 1: which is a consortium of schools founded after World War
Speaker 1: Two as the oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies. For years,
Speaker 1: Frame was also the curator at the consortium's Health Physics
Speaker 1: Historical Instrumentation Museum, also known as the Museum of Radiation
Speaker 1: and Radioactivity, which chronicles the scientific and commercial history of
Speaker 1: radioactivity and radiation. Frame said, it is kind of attractive
Speaker 1: because it has that ear doesn't glow to it under
Speaker 1: certain lighting conditions. It really looks kind of special. There
Speaker 1: are some people out there that are particularly interested in
Speaker 1: it because it's radioactive, and there are other people who
Speaker 1: just collect glassware, the styles and so forth. But there's
Speaker 1: so much of this stuff out there that despite the
Speaker 1: fact that there's a variety of people that are interested
Speaker 1: in it, it really doesn't have a lot of value
Speaker 1: unless it's a particularly unique piece of glassware, size, design, artistry,
Speaker 1: that kind of thing. Uranium glass is also known as
Speaker 1: vasoline glass because that translucent yellowish green reminded some people
Speaker 1: of Vasoline brand petroleum jelly, and it certainly has its
Speaker 1: die hard fans. Some collectors and deficionados of the stuff
Speaker 1: gather every year for conventions to buy, sell, show off,
Speaker 1: and learn about uranium glass pieces. One convention was in
Speaker 1: its twenty second year. In addition, some antique shops and
Speaker 1: exchanges feature large collections of the glowing, sometimes eerie looking glass.
Speaker 1: Uranium was identified as an element in sevent nine, and
Speaker 1: Austrian glassmakers are credited with knowingly producing the first uranium
Speaker 1: glass around eighteen thirty. In World War Two, the US
Speaker 1: government restricted the use of uranium for coloring glass. It
Speaker 1: was thought that the uranium might be needed for nuclear weapons,
Speaker 1: a band that lasted until the latter part of ninety
Speaker 1: which brings us to an interesting question. Is uranium glass radioactive?
Speaker 1: In a word, yes, uranium glass is indeed radioactive. That said,
Speaker 1: there's no need to run for the hills or the
Speaker 1: nearest bomb shelter frame said it's absolutely true we're dealing
Speaker 1: with with vaseline glass is something that is radioactive just
Speaker 1: like everything else, and it is more radioactive than the
Speaker 1: majority of things, and that you can detect the radioactivity
Speaker 1: of vassline or uranium glass with a handheld meter like
Speaker 1: a Geiger counter. Is the radioactivity from uranium glass strong
Speaker 1: enough to say, morph someone into a big green, angry
Speaker 1: guy or a part kid, part a rachnoid, or strong
Speaker 1: enough to make you sick or kill you. Basically, no
Speaker 1: Frame offered up a quick history lesson, he said. Marie
Speaker 1: Curry got these more residues from the Czech Republic back
Speaker 1: in the day, and she extracted the uranium, but discovered
Speaker 1: what was left behind was even more radioactive than the
Speaker 1: uranium itself. The material that made the residues most radioactive
Speaker 1: turned out to be radium, not the uranium. So in
Speaker 1: uranium or you have this whole host of radioactive stuff
Speaker 1: and the key player there is really radium. A radium
Speaker 1: to uranium itself is not all that radioactive. Still Frame
Speaker 1: will admit there may be some incredibly small risk involved
Speaker 1: with uranium glass. He said, it's basically a theoretical risk.
Speaker 1: The radioactive exposures you get from flying in an airplane
Speaker 1: or inhaling air in your home which has rate on
Speaker 1: in it, they're so much greater than any dose that
Speaker 1: anyone's going to get from uranium or vasoline glass. There is,
Speaker 1: for all practical purposes no risk, zero risk, which for
Speaker 1: collectors and admirers is good news, because blast that glows
Speaker 1: is just cool. Today's episode is based on the article
Speaker 1: how uranium glass Got its glow on on how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot Com, written by John Donovan. Brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot Com, and it is produced by Tyler Playing
Speaker 1: with assistance from Ramsey Young. For more podcasts for My
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. M