Spicy Antiques Roadshow: Uranium Glass and Radioactive Relics - EMF 2026

[applause] Um, hello. So, um, I'm Jen. Um, I did not expect to be in a tent this large. I expected to be in a small room, so I'll do do my best. Um, so I just want to, um, offer a disclaimer. This is not another orphan source incident. Um, everything here is coming home with me safely and will be safely displayed and handled. Um, also I am not a nuclear scientist. So if any facts are slightly incorrect, please tell me later. Um, but I will do my best to to tell you what I know and why I'm here. So who am I? Um, I am a uranium glass collector first and foremost. I also, um, an amiiques dealer. I have, uh, an antiques business. I'm based in Newcastle, um, which is nearly all the way almost in Scotland. Um, originally from New York, which is why I don't sound like I'm from Newcastle. Um, I'm also an artist. I have a background in cultural studies and I work um, as a UX researcher for a software company up in Newcastle. So, if you are not familiar with what is uranium glass, it is glass that contains uranium oxide as a coloring agent. It's usually about um trace. So they use it as a colorant use a bit of between trace amounts and up to about 2% of uranium by weight. It's also known in um different countries as different things. So Vaseline glass it's called in the US um which is a yellow green color. um canary glass which is the bright yellow varieties and then depression glass which is name it's named for the time period when it was produced. There's also we also call it custard glass and you'll see that is an ivory colored glass. Um but a lot of people use these terms interchangeably especially if you're looking on eBay and you want to find some uranium glass. Um people don't necessarily use those terms religiously. Um, so before we start, the best bit of this is let's play glow or no glow. So I'm going to show you some of my collection and I would like you to guess whether or not they are uranium glass and whether they glow. And that is the characteristic of uranium glass. It glows under UV light. So I'm not quite sure how we get Can anybody see this? How does it work? Where's the um Can you Oh, you can see it. Okay, cool. Right. So, we're going to start with um So, I'm going to show you an show you one of my pieces. So, do you think it glows or no? Just shout out. Glow or no glow? >> Okay. So, under UV, can you see that? Woo. So, that's a glower. So, this one is um from the late 1800s. Uh let's see. We've got this one. So, can you see? >> No glow. Okay, raise your hands if it's a glower. Okay, let's see. >> Okay, so that is um George Davidson's Perline Glass, which I'll talk about in a minute. Okay, how about this one? You see that one? Okay, let's see. Boop boop. >> Not a glower. So, that is from the 1960s. Um, how's about this one? Actually, no. Let's do this one first. This one's cool. Um, what about this one? >> Okay, so yes, that's a glower. So, that is also from I think that's the 1930s. Um, let's see what else have I got. How's about this? This one. >> Who thinks it glows? Okay. Right. This one does not glow. And it's from Asda. Okay. And then I've got um some lovely beads. Okay. So, those glow. And then I'll show you um just really quickly. These are glowers. So, I've got a juicer from America. And then what about this one? >> Okay, so this got it's got pink on the inside. It's a bluish color on the outside and actually it does contain uranium. So it does glow. So those are some of the uran that's some of my collection and I'm going to talk a little bit about them. I'm also going to talk a little bit about radioactivity. So we'll just go through. So just kind of a quick history um the birth of uranium glass. So uranium was discovered by Claproth in pitchb blend ore um in 1789 and then Joseph Ryal in what is now the Czech Republic produced the first uranium glass by adding that uranium oxide to the glass mix. It soon spread to glass makers across Europe and the UK and the USA but it was a very glass makers were very secretive with their recipes. So it wasn't actually well documented. Um but eventually some scientific analysis happened to confirm that they were using uranium as a coloring agent. So in terms of history, the golden age of the Victorian period and into the 1940s um is when the most uranium glass was produced. The Victorians loved their novelty, their spectacle. They absolutely loved anything that was interesting. I love Victorians. I don't know if you do. Um, but they didn't have UV torches and but the natural UV in the sunlight gave it a characteristic special kind of featur like a mysterious kind of color especially at sort of the end of the day. So it was very appealing to the Victorian aesthetic. Um, it was often often made as an affordable luxury for an emerging middle class. So, a lot of the pieces here are pressed glass, and that was glass that was easy to mass-produce, and it was less expensive for people who wanted to have beautiful things in their homes. Um, and as we moved into the into the 20th century, production was halted in World War II, um, as we took all the uranium for the Manhattan Project. So, it was on the decline where it stopped for a while completely. Um, so one of the first piece I showed you is um George Davidson. This one's quite cool. So I'll show it to you again. Well, actually I'll just hold it up. So that was the yellow one. So this one um it's called Perline Glass. It's from the 1880s. And it's not just what makes it special. It's not just uranium. It has arsenic in the glass mix. So I wouldn't suggest you eat this. Um but this secret ingredient, it was basically the glass was fired once. Um, it was pressed, fired once and then taken out and then put back into the little kiln which they call the glory hole. And I am saying this for my friend in the audience who said you are not going to say that on a stage and I am. So now you have a legitimate reason to say glory hole at work. So the small kil that would go in um back into it just the top part and that would bring out the white which is because of the arsenic in the glass mix. So, fun fact, and that's the that's what I collect the most of is that type of glass. Um, so why does it glow? So, a lot of often times I hear people talking in the antique center and they don't understand why it's glowing. They think that because it's glowing, it's giving off radioactive waves and they're going to like go away poisoned. And that's not why it glows. Um, the fluoresence and the radioactivity are are slightly different things. the UV light, which is visible to our eyes, like in that purple light I've got, it hits the uranium atoms in the glass, it excites the electrons above the ground state, and then it gives off photons as the electrons transition back to the ground state. And that happens millions of times per second, giving the continuous glow. Disclaimer, I'm not a scientist. If I've got that wrong, please let me know later. But that is how I understand it. So, the glow is separate from the actual radioactivity. And I've got some lovely radioactivity thing radioactive things here that do not glow, but they do contain uranium. So, it's all about the glass. Um, so I'm not going to do as good a job as the guy who talked about the orphan source yesterday. Um, but basically, if you're not familiar with radioactivity, um, it's alpha, beta, and gamma waves. And alpha are the heavy particles. They can be stopped with a piece of paper um or a few centimeters away of of air. And uranium glass primar primarily emits alpha. Um beta waves are fast electrons are stopped by some aluminium um and less of a concern for uranium glass. And then gamma rays are the ones that we are quite worried about and that requires lead or like thick concrete to block. There are very very low levels of uranium, sorry, of gamma in uranium. So they're very very safe. So I stole that from the guy yesterday because that was a great graphic to just show you like the difference between the different waves. So again, uranium primarily emits alpha. Um so it's quite safe. um tiny bits of beta and sometimes you can pick up gamma with special instruments but mostly it's quite safe. So things about basically short answer is it's it's safe to a point like obviously don't grind it up and sprinkle it on your cereal. Um it is safe to display, it's safe to handle. Uh if it's chipped you want to be careful. You don't want to ingest it essentially. So just they can't those alpha particles can't penetrate your skin. Um but you know if you're displaying them on open shelving as soon as you move away you'll see those that radiation drops. Um I've got some geer counters that I use go around and get to test things and it is quite fun but as soon as you move away from your uranium glass pieces that um reading will drop. Obviously don't let your kids eat off of them um as with any antique. Um, and again, as you've seen here, just because it's green doesn't mean it glows. Just because it's old and green doesn't mean it glows. So, but basically, um, the radiation level is comparable to a banana. So, it's quite safe. Some pieces have higher levels of uranium in them, but again, if you're using them for display or collection, they are safe to handle. So, basically the idea um when you're out and about, if you're interested in collecting or you or you are curious and you want to see if you can find any in the wild, um the best way to find uranium in the first instance is a UV torch, which is like this one here. Um obviously, you don't need this level of um you can just get a cheap thing off of Amazon. Um, I've got some little keychains as well, like you can you can still test to see if it glows, and you will see it glow. Um, color clues. So, uranium, as you've seen here, can come in a lot of different colors. The sort of main colors are greens, shades of green, and it's it's kind of like an apple green, the most common type. Um, it has, especially if you hold it up in the sun, you can almost see the yellowy glow to it. um some and so I think it's more unusual to find pieces like this which are colored and contain uranium um but this is the most common I think easy to find type of uranium glass which is like a clear green and sometimes this which is called jadeite [snorts] so that as well um but again it comes in lots of different colors and so using a torch or a flashlight if you're American um does help identify And then really the only true test is using your geer counter. A geer counter. Um so if you if you were to get into this hobby slightly obsessively like me, um you could get yourself a geer counter and test things. Um it's quite fun to hear it click. I don't know if it will pick it up, but we shall see. So this one is quite spicy. So you can hear it. Can you hear that? So that that's probably the best bit is if you go around and use your geer counter and make it make clicky noises. Um so yeah, that is the truest way to test it cuz sometimes what you can find is if you're using a torch, you can some different glasses glow anyway. Um but it's a different color and it's a different intensity. So manganese glass often clear if you shine a UV torch on it sometimes it does look green and as especially new collectors who go out and looking in you know in car boot fairs and all sorts will be like oh I found all this uranium glass and actually it doesn't have any uranium in it so manganese is a different um it it produces a slightly duller green glow um and it does not make your geer counter go click click click so just things to kind of think of um and there is there is an item You can buy an Asda that glows. Um, but I think we haven't really worked out what it contains. Somebody told me it might contain turbium. Um, but it's new. Uh, you can also there is also the possibility of buying new newly produced uranium glass because in the Czech Republic they still making it and selling it and a lot of glass makers actually still use it now using that Czech um glass which is actually ir. Um, I think it's irradiated. No, am I using the right word? It's depleted uranium. Sorry. So, it's not as dangerous as the ones they used in the 1800s. So, the other thing about um collecting things like you start with uranium. I started with uranium glass and I got really interested in the the kind of the danger element and the being able to find things that made my geer counter go off. Um, so I started kind of looking at radioactive antiques as well. So, you can get all there are lots of things that will you can test for radioactivity. Um, clocks, there is glazes. I'll show you some in a second. Um, there's lots of other things and as we've learned, you can also get things that end up in the swap shop, but we're going to keep on the antiques subject. Um, so radium clock. So this is where I think it's really important to be clear that uranium glass is quite safe to handle. The uranium is locked in the matrix of the glass. However, if you were to start looking for other things, radium clocks, for example, and luminous watches, um if they are sealed, they are safe. But radium is a whole different beast and it's not something you want to mess with. So, um, if you find yourself with, say, a pocket watch and it is looking rather old. Let's see if we can switch over. So, I've got this, which is an Ingresol watch, and it glows quite cool, and it's very, very spicy. So, I will Can you hear that? So that's a very very high reading and it will it will keep going up. This is fine because it's sealed and it's it's it's fairly safe to handle because the glass is intact. If the glass wasn't on this, you would not want to handle this and it's that would be an orphan source. You would not want to have that in your house. Um other things that are really cool, let's see, what else have I got? And just some little fun facts. They're not really fun. uh radium girls um you may have heard of where in the factories they used to hand paint the numbers on clocks using radium paint and they used to lick the brushes to get a fine point and then that created horrible horrible effects after. Um so they were ingesting radium daily and they didn't know that at the time and they all a lot of them died from bone cancer. So again, it's very you do have to know what you're doing when it comes to um radium. Um other cool things, glazes. So you can get orange glaze. Um it's the brand name is Fiestaear, but there are other makers. Um and there are other there are some art um pottery makers who use this glass uh this glaze or have used it in the past. Um, so the original, not to be confused with like things that are produced now because Fiesta still had there's a lot more modern versions available. Um, but this is like an original piece and I'll show you that. So that little orange jug cont has uranium containing glaze and that will go. So if you went to the night market, I let someone borrow this. He should be in the audience. Um, and you can see that it is quite radioactive. So, they put uranium in the glaze. Um, and it doesn't glow, which is interesting cuz it's not glass and it's it's not as easy to see, I guess. And then this one, this is another This is like an art bowl, like a stone wear bowl, and it is by um Eric Leaper, who's an artist. And that one is also so it's got that orange glaze. So you can find sometimes find that. I think the Fiesta is more available in the US than it is here. That one I got off someone on eBay, but I had a collection of Fiestaear that I actually brought back from the US. It's quite hard to find in the UK. Um, what else? Radioactive finds. So, in in my explorations, I have found other things that glow. Um, I've got a friend who is a rock hound and goes off digging for these things. Um, so there are things like um I have a specimen of appetite um which has thorium laced into it and I bought that in a crystal shop in Florida just sitting on the shelf and all of their that's wherever they sourced it from it all had thorium in it. So, I went around and I was like, I have a radio code as well which detects beta and gamma waves. And I went around and this was going crazy and I couldn't work out. I was in a crystal shop like what was it? Um so I have that with me cuz I had to buy it of course. Um and um sometimes you can get megalodon teeth can be radioactive. So that's an actual fossil. And then this has this one might not show up on here. So it's quite low, but on the radio code it comes it it detects it quite well. Um and obviously that is a little specimen of uranite which will certainly not be getting left behind. So there's lots of things you can find out there. Um so yeah, so that's just a little comparison chart um of things like the kind of main elements that are in them their activity. So the kind of radioactivity level and then the risk. Okay. Um, so again, just to repeat, like uranium glass is very safe to handle as long as you're sensible. Um, it's safe to collect. Anything with fiesta red glaze on it is generally safe, but don't eat. And this says frequently. Don't eat from it. Just don't eat from it. Um, handling it with care. And obviously, it's not a good idea to sleep with something like that next to your head. But if you've got a display cabinet and it's, you know, it's well ventilated and in a room away from your head when you're sleeping, it's it's fine. Um, radium dial clocks again, you need to be very careful with. Um, especially, um, once someone came into the antique shop with a Spitfire dial that did not have glass on it, and I spotted it, and it was on like a low shelf, and the antiques, the dealers in the shop didn't realize how dangerous it was. So that had to be we a collector came and took it for us. Um we didn't have to have it disposed. Um and he took it back and he's now displayed it in a very airtight, very sealed, um environment. So it's being looked after. Um but again, minerals, um fossils and rocks, there's all sorts of things. And as we know from here, you can also find it in old fire detectors, um, smoke detectors in you can get a marum in that. So there's lots of things you can find. Um, but uranium glass is the safest. And that's just a visual guide. So you can see the different kind of um the different glows of the different types of glass on the left. And then just to confuse you further, there there are types of glass that glow that do not contain uranium but that contain other things. So cadmium, selenium, boron nitrate, manganese, lead also can glow blue if you shine a light on it. And the the light that I've got there is a 395Nm. That's your standard like black light that you'd buy like for your kids parties or whatever. Um, but you can also buy, if you're into mineral hunting, you can get like a 365M light and that will show up more and you can see a lot more, but it doesn't um, it will always show uranium and it will show these other things as well, but it makes it harder to look for just uranium if you're out and about because you'll see everything. You'll also see all the dirt in your house like if you shine it in your house, not not advised. Um, so yeah. So that's some of the other things you can find out there. So just to say thank you, um, thank you for having me. I am, um, on Instagram uh, as Cabinet Curiosity is Vintage. I have a shop on Etsy and things. There's there's it's witch is closed this weekend, but there is um, there are links on my Instagram if you are interested. I also have some little bags to sell today if you want to meet me in the Q&A tent. And it's just got little pieces of glass with a little torch. Um, so yeah, come see me in the Q&A after and I will bring all my things and you can test them and look at them and handle them safely. Thank you. [applause]