Uranium glass sample mounted in a specimen display case, includes one free UV keyring light that can be used to demonstrate the fluorescence of Uranium glass.
These glass samples are perfectly legal to own and sell in the UK and they are NOT banned or restricted on ebay or from shipping via Royal Mail.
These Uranium Glass samples are not toys and are not suitable for children as they contain small parts and as such represent a choking hazard.
Keep out of reach of children at all times.
This listing is for one(1) mounted Uranium glass sample and one(1) free UV keyring light, the rulers used in some of the images are used to provide a sense of scale and are NOT included.
These are designed as a display piece not as a Geiger counter check source.
The Geiger counter would have to be very sensitive, if you are looking for a Geiger counter check source please take a look at what else we have in our ebay shop, Uranium glazed pottery makes a good choice.
Uranium glass is called Uranium glass because it contains Uranium, it is mildly radioactive and its activity depends upon the amount of Uranium in the glass and whether it is natural or depleted Uranium.
The invention of Uranium glass is generally credited to Josef Reidel in 1830s Bohemia; he named the two types he produced Annagrun for the yellow-green glass and Annagelb for the yellow glass. However, yellow glass containing Uranium oxide has also been found in a mosaic in Italy which was dated to around 79 AD - so it looks like the idea wasn’t so ‘new’ after all!
By the 1940s Uranium glass production had spread to Western Europe including France and England; it was also being produced in Japan and the USA. Between 1943 and 1958 American and UK governments did ban the use of uranium salts for commercial use as they wanted Uranium restricted to military use; so most Uranium glass produced after the early 1940s contains depleted Uranium as opposed to natural Uranium
Uranium glass in its various forms is often called canary glass, custard glass, Vaseline glass or Depression glass. It has been used for all sorts of items including jewellery, tableware, lamps and vases and was very popular in 1920s and 1930s ‘Art Deco’ style glassware objects.
Uranium glass was made according to many different recipes using different oxides or salts of Uranium depending on the colour required. It fluoresces with an eerie yellow green glow under UV light – but it does not ‘glow in the dark’ by itself! How bright the glass fluoresces depends on the amount of Uranium dissolved in the glass and also which other substances have been added to the glass to affect colour and opacity.
Uranium glass fluoresces with an eerie green yellow glow under UV light, how brightly it fluoresces depends on how much Uranium is dissolved in the glass, it also depends on a number of other factors such as the opacity of the glass and any other ingredients added to the glass, it also depends on the temperature of the glass, as Uranium glass gets hot its fluorescence diminishes, the wavelength of the UV light and its intensity also affect how bright the Uranium glass fluoresces, but the eerie glow exhibited is a photochemical phenomenon and not to do with its radioactivity.
Please take a look at the images of the samples next to rulers so as to get a better idea of scale.
These are the approximate dimensions given in millimetres and inches with the clear plastic cover fitted.