The owner immediately marked up those items’ prices. At another, Dan says, he shined a blacklight and watched the entire store light up. When I asked Dan if he gets weird looks when poking around shops with a black light, he says, “Yes, at times, but it depends where I shop.” Some in-the-know antique stores have blacklight displays. Uranium glass items are readily available online, but they say it is more fun to find them “in the wild.” They’ve bought intricately carved serving dishes, kitschy souvenir cups, glowing marbles, and, one of their personal favorites, a bird-shaped salt dip. The Sawyers began searching through thrift stores and antique shops for any items that fluoresced under a blacklight. They were initially puzzled, until they discovered it was uranium glass. While combing the beach with a blacklight at night, they found a strange piece of sea glass that glowed under UV light. For some depression-era glassware collectors, the only color that matters is glow-in-the-dark.ĭan and Lisa Sawyers’ interest in radium glass began when they were scouring the shores of Lake Superior for fluorescent sodalites, unremarkable-looking gray rocks that contain minerals that glow under UV light. And It’s not just nuclear scientists that get excited about uranium glass. By that, he means that having a Fiestaware plate, a reliable source of radiation, is handy for making sure your radiation-detection meter is working. “It’s pretty, and it’s a great check source,” he says. Courtesy of Chelsea Lopez/īroughton says that people in his field hunt for uranium-containing Fiestaware all the time. Collector Chelsea Lopez’s butter dish, shown under a black light and without it. In response to the school evacuation, 50 scientists signed a letter stating that Fiestaware “is among the most benign radioactive materials commonly found in the home” and applauding the student for his curiosity. Uranium was also used in the glaze of orange-red Fiestaware, also known as “radioactive red,” prior to 1944, and was once a common sight in American kitchens.Īlthough uranium glassware does register on a handheld Geiger counter, the radiation amounts are considered negligible and on par with radiation emitted from other everyday items such as smoke detectors and cell phones. Shades can range from a translucent canary yellow to an opaque milky white depending on how much uranium is added to the glass, from just a trace to upwards of 25 percent. Uranium glass mosaics existed as early as 79 AD.Īlso known as canary or vaseline glass, uranium glass is typically yellow or green in color and glows bright green under a black light. Prior to World War II, and well before its potential for energy or weaponry was recognized, uranium was commonly used as a coloring agent in everything from plates, glasses, and punch bowls to vases, candlesticks, and beads. Courtesy of Dan and Lisa Sawyer/the_glowing_glass_guy_ When it comes to radiological hazards, says health physicist Phil Broughton, “There is a world of difference between detectable and dangerous.” Uranium glass is also known as canary glass due to this common canary-yellow color. They thought school administrators had overreacted. The scientists dismayed by the events at Haddon Township High School were not upset that someone had brought in a radioactive plate.
Radioactive antiques have a long history, as well as a certain glow that is highly desired by some collectors today. The entire school was evacuated, and those in the nuclear science field were aghast.īut thousands of similarly radioactive plates and cups can be found in antique stores, thrift shops, and possibly your own kitchen cabinets. When the plate registered as radioactive, someone at the school panicked and called in a hazmat team.
The student had received a Geiger counter, an instrument used to measure radiation, for Christmas, and wanted to do an experiment. In January of 2021, a New Jersey teenager brought a piece of an antique Fiestaware plate to a high-school science class.
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