Uranium glass

Uranium glass is glass which has had uranium, usually in oxide diuranate form, added to a glass mix before melting for colouration. The proportion usually varies from trace levels to about 2% uranium by weight, although some 20th-century pieces were made with up to 25% uranium.^[1][2]

First identified in 1789 by German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth, uranium was soon being added to decorative glass for its fluorescent effect. James Powell’s Whitefriars Glass company in London, England, was one of the first to market the glowing glass, but other manufacturers soon realised its sales potential and uranium glass was produced across Europe^[3] and later in Ohio.^[4]

Uranium glass was once made into tableware and household items, but fell out of widespread use when the availability of uranium to most industries was sharply curtailed during the Cold War in the 1940s to 1990s, with the vast majority of the world's uranium supply being utilised as a strategic material for use in nuclear weapons or nuclear power. Most uranium glass is now considered to be antiques or retro-era collectables, although there has been a minor revival in art glassware. Otherwise, modern uranium glass is now mainly limited to small objects like beads or marbles as scientific or decorative novelties.