Cookware Chemistry and Glowing Glass
Chemistry Connections
Episode #21
Welcome to Chemistry Connections, my name is Alex Scott and I am your host for episode #21, Cookware Chemistry and Glowing Glass. Today I will be discussing the history and chemistry behind uranium glass.
Segment 1: Introduction to Uranium Glass
Introduce the episode topic
Include definitions, vocabulary, interesting background information and context
- So today we’re talking about uranium glass, but we have to start much more in the abstract
- There’s a few different terms used to describe the glass I’m talking about:
- Depression glass: produced from 1929–1939, often clear or colored translucent machine-made glassware distributed free, or at low cost, in the United States and Canada around the tim e of the Great Depression.
- Elegant glass: Depression glass that was at least partially handmade, had a cleaner finish, and more vibrant colors, same time period
- Uranium glass: glass which has had a uranium metal oxide added to a glass mix before melting for coloration
- Vaseline Glass: uranium glass of a yellow or green translucent color
- Generally, uranium glass can be identified by shining blacklight on it, as it will fluoresce a bright green
- Context & History
- The oldest recorded use is at least 79 AD, in a yellow piece of glass in a Roman mosaic, but it became most popular in the mid 19th century
- Generally, the most recognized industrial uranium glass producer is Austrian Franz Xaver Riedel
- He named the 2 colors annagelb and annagrun, for his wife Anna & the German words for yellow and green.
- Produced variety of items, worked in modern day Dolni Polubni, Bohemia
- By the 1840s, many other European glassworks began to produce uranium glass items and developed new varieties of uranium glass
- In the US, Most glassware was made in the Ohio River Valley, where access to raw materials and power made manufacturing inexpensive
- It was commonly used as a coloring agent for green American Depression glass during the early 20th century
- Use in the US stopped partway through WWII when the US confiscated uranium supplies
Segment 2: The Chemistry Behind Uranium Glass
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Provide detailed explanations of the chemistry that is related to your topic.
Remember that you must have a minimum of 2 topics from ap chem that you can explain here as related to your episode
- Why was uranium oxide used to make the glass green?
- Metal oxides make glass different colors
- Why?: reflect a specific wavelength and absorb all the others
- Why does it fluoresce under UV light?
- Takes the energy from ultraviolet light
- Excites molecules, so in order to bring electrons back to lower energy state, it releases a photon of light
Segment 3: Personal Connections
- Interested because:
- my parents are avid antique glass collectors
- My parents especially love green Depression Glass
- I wanted to know what made it that color
- Tested my own cabinet to see what was and wasn’t uranium AND MOST OF IT WAS
- It’s strange that radioactive materials were so popular for cookware
- Stranger that I’ve eaten off of it on holidays and family gatherings
- The history is so strange
Thank you for listening to this episode of Chemistry Connections. For more student-ran podcasts and digital content, make sure that you visit www.hvspn.com.
Sources:
List your sources here. Make sure they are linked. Wikipedia cannot count for more than 50% of your sources.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Depression_glass
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluorescence
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_glass
https://dustyoldthing.com/uranium-glass-spotlight/
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/these-people-love-to-collect-radioactive-glass/
https://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/consumer%20products/vaseline.htm
Music Credits
Warm Nights by @LakeyInspired
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