A Green Valentine

Feb 13, 2009
Issue 468

1. For those who received multiple copies of e-mail #466 hopefully we’ll solve that problem by not sending attachments in the future, but links where the item can be viewed.

2. Ed Bush tells us he has found a CMoG T-shirt in a drawer with Carder’s famous signature spread across the front with a row of acid-cut-back vases pictured below! Now isn’t that a find?

3. Several have asked for pictures on the Forgett collection. Maybe someone has a Skinner catalogue and can supply pictures.

4. Rane Bly supplies the following on the color green and uranium.
“I thought I would share some information I have gathered on using uranium as a glass coloring agent. In 1835 a Bohemian named Joseph Riedel separated uranium salts from pitchblend and used it for a coloring agent in a 40% lead based glass. The color was a bright yellow-green colored glass he named Annagelb after Anna his wife and gelb which was yellow. Later he developed a bright green colored glass he named Annagrun. Between 1840 and 1870 Boston & Sandwich and the New England Glass Company used these colors. You will get a reading with a Geiger counter from this glass but 98.5 percent of the radiation emitted will be beta waves which dissipate at a distance of about 18 inches. Stories of glass makers dying from radiation poisoning is a myth. The percentage need to produce the desired effect for these colors is about 1%-2%. Sometimes glassware will contain smaller percentages such as .02% but this is not high enough to
actively fluoresce under UV rays emitted by a black light. Some pieces were manufactured containing up to 24%!

Just because there is no visible reaction under UV light does not always mean it does not contain uranium but in fact might have very low percentages.
Pomona Green has a .5% and glows very brightly. Other colors have a full 2% yet do not appear to glow as brightly in accordance to ratio as Pomona Green. Therefore intensity may be affected by the natural color of the glass. I am assuming that the green of Pomona Green is intensifying the appearance of the glow and other colors muting the glow. One must also take into account the thickness of the glass. This is demonstrated with color in Carder’s ribbed pieces. The color appears to change from the thick to the thin areas of the ribbing. I do not believe the hue of the color changes at all in these pieces but would be better described as a change in saturation. So while measuring intensity of the reaction to UV light one must consider the saturation factor due to the thickness of the glass along with the original color of the glass. Compensating for these factors will bring about more accurate results while testing these pieces.”

Symposium 2024
Carder Steuben Glass Association
20-21 September 2024
© Carder Steuben Glass Association Inc.