Uranium Glass Beads - some info and data
Post Reply Edit View All Forum
Posted by: Rosanna Post Reply
08/02/2019, 19:17:56

I received 5 uranium glass (UG) beads from Audrey (Workworkwork) and did some Geiger counter tests. I also read up on uranium and UG a bit. I'm not a radiation safety physicist but I think I have a handle on the hazard, or lack thereof, from UG beads at this point.

First some info on uranium glass. The Wikipedia article on UG has a nice picture - copied here - of UG beads (under regular light) and what they look like under black (UV) light. It's a nice reference if you need to see the color of UG when it fluoresces.

Note there are a variety of colors. In my personal collection I found that almost all of my pre- WWII white, Czech glass beads fluoresced yellow-green, and hence were made from UG. I was surprised! The second picture shows the white beads in my collection that are UG, excepting the large pendant that is X-ed out.

UraniumGlassBeads.jpg (100.8 KB)  RFWhiteCzechAug2019.jpg (82.7 KB)  


Modified by Rosanna at Sat, Aug 03, 2019, 06:29:53

© Copyright 2019
All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users
Followups