I love ebay

mrsflibble · Thu Oct 04, 2007 8:58 am

yet again we have a 50% off listing prices in the uk so I'm flogging everything I can find

everything from a baby bouncer to a vaseline glass tray which I wanted to keep but James is afraid of... it's mildly radioactive.

Shirley · Post: # 73549Post **Shirley** » Sat Oct 06, 2007 6:50 pm

How is it radioactive? :-)

I really should get some stuff onto ebay.

bogit & legit · Sat Oct 06, 2007 8:03 pm

get it on here first

mrsflibble · Sun Oct 07, 2007 8:34 am

Shirlz wrote:How is it radioactive? :-)

I really should get some stuff onto ebay.

uranium and vaseline glasses are made using uranium salts (uranium dioxide) for their yellow/green colour... BUT oweing to its content of uranium salts, it will give a positive reading on a geiger counter.

I really want a geiger counter for charity shop hopping as old clocks with glow in the dark hands and whatnot have similarly radioactive material in. but a geiger counter isnt as easy to use discreetly as a UV penlight is... that's how I find uranium glass in jumbles and shops.

anyway, on the glass thing the danger is negligible- unless you're eating off it or grinding it in some way for whatever reason. But it still freaks my husband out which is why I'm getting shot of it. pity though, I'd like a colection but theres no way he'd let it near the house!!

the.fee.fairy · Mon Oct 08, 2007 6:12 pm

So...tell me more about this glass. is it quite a rare thng. or just a thing of beauty? And how do you find it using a uv light? Must try this for myself!!

I've managed to take pictures of loads of clothes for Ebay, but then i ran out of time for putting them on... I'll probably do it on Sunday now.

mrsflibble · Mon Oct 08, 2007 8:48 pm

relatively rare seeing as it's late victorian up to I think the late '30s, and bbeing glass it has a tendency to break. I bought a UV pen from hongkong (before they started turning up in pound shops here

) because if you shine a UV light on non-uranium glass, it reflects off purple. if you shine one on uranium glass it will glow (phosphores to make myself sound poncey) a bright green. To explain I'm whacking in a photo...

this is a 1920s Art Deco ring holder; it's not very ornate so it would have been something an upper middle class person would have had without much difficulty. Gods bless Martin Klaproth for his discovery, and Henri Antoine Becquerel for finding out it's radioactive.

Uranium salts have been used for loads of stuff in the past, from glass wear right up to being a mordant for wool and silk!

edited post due to much hugeness of photograph.