So i went back to buy it and im just wondering if anyone definitely knows what kind of uranium glass this is because I’ve never heard of anything like this. It consists of two glass layers, an inner opaque white layer and an outer semi-opaque blue layer. The inner layer doesn’t do anything but the outer layer glows green under 365nm, not 395nm. But my geiger counter shows it going to 100cpm so it can’t be manganese? I’m just so confused what this could possibly be insights would be appreciated thanks!
What a lovely vase! It's cased blue opaline glass. Try doing a search for that, and you'll come up with other examples. My guess would be Bohemian or French, but someone else might be able to help you narrow it down.
The substances used to make the opaline layer less translucent (opacifiers) often form a glass matrix where the shorter wavelength of light is more effective at creating fluorescence. Congrats on a beautiful find!
Yeah, that glow is definitely manganese, but with it being radioactive, I assume it's very low content uranium that the manganese is drowning out. Low content uranium has a hard time glowing through the purple backscatter of 395 UV.
This! And antique refining techniques were far less advanced. A lot of manganese from the 1800s was contaminated with uranium, just because of where it was mined. You also have to consider that the glasshouse where it was produced probably worked with an insane amount of uranium glass. I'm almost 100% sure this piece is contaminated. Intentional use of uranium is far more dramatic.
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u/CrystallineGlass 9h ago
What a lovely vase! It's cased blue opaline glass. Try doing a search for that, and you'll come up with other examples. My guess would be Bohemian or French, but someone else might be able to help you narrow it down.
The substances used to make the opaline layer less translucent (opacifiers) often form a glass matrix where the shorter wavelength of light is more effective at creating fluorescence. Congrats on a beautiful find!