Color Change

Rande Bly of Birmingham, AL continues his discussion of the Tyndall effect:

I have been showing that Carder used a small amount of opalescent in his Mousselene pieces to enhance a striped effect within the glass. The Tyndall effect causes a more drastic color change and a change from a more transparent glass to a more opaque glass between the vertical ribs caused by right angles to the light source. I had to show the science causing the phenomena. It is called the Tyndall effect in opalescent glass. First I will show the picture of the Tyndall effect in opalescent glass showing the color and transparency change.

Unlike the regular Mousselene pieces, in the Cardinal Red Mousselene pieces he used a large amount of opalescent and both the color change and the change in transparency is monumental. Today I would like to show the “Tyndall Effect” in my Carder Steuben Cardinal Red Mousselene ripple pattern plate. You can clearly see the opalescent glass makes it dichromatic and changes the transparency in a drastic way.

These are all pictures of the exact same plate just in different lighting. This Cardinal Red Mousselene glass is so rare that not a single piece is displayed in any museum in the world and the Rockwell collection does not have an example either. I know of only two other advanced Steuben collectors that have one besides me. One is signed. The opalescent content is so high in this piece that it does change from nearly fully transparent to completely opaque. I have heard some of you got a good laugh when I first explained this but now I have explained the science causing the phenomena. As they say a picture tells a thousand words.