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Uranium in the good old days

whitefork

None of the above
whitefork
Joined
Aug 6, 2001
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from: http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/section/uranium_DiscoveryandUses.asp
Before the discovery of nuclear fission by Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in 1939, the principal use of uranium (chiefly as the oxides) was in pigments, ceramic glazes, and a yellow-green fluorescent glass and as a source of radium for medical purposes. It has also been added to steels to increase their strength and toughness. However, because of the high toxicity (both chemical and radiological) of uranium and its compounds, and because of their importance as nuclear fuel, these earlier uses have been largely curtailed.
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Does anyone here own any uranium-glazed artifacts, pigments, or this very cool-sounding fluorescent glass?
 
Kullervo said:
from: http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/section/uranium_DiscoveryandUses.asp
Does anyone here own any uranium-glazed artifacts, pigments, or this very cool-sounding fluorescent glass?
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No, but my fifth-grade teacher collected antiques and had a bunch of this kind of stuff. He had an antique clock with glowing hands that used either uranium or radium, I forget. He also had a radium-laced water cooler, back from when they thought that was good for people. :eek:

Jeremy
 
Radium was commonly used in clocks at watches. While I worked at the EPA, we had a site we were looking at which was an old watch plant. Many people died because they would stick the brush in their mouth to bring it to a point.

:(
 
Torlack said:
Radium was commonly used in clocks at watches. While I worked at the EPA, we had a site we were looking at which was an old watch plant. Many people died because they would stick the brush in their mouth to bring it to a point.

:(
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I've heard that before about radium in paint. When I was still in school we had a physics lab tech who had a watch with radium paint on it. He'd use it to demostrate the Geiger counter. Why he still wore it every day I don't know.
 
There used to be a large chunk of uranium (ex-electron microscope radiation shield) propping a door open in my department. Until someone asked, "What's that?" and "Isn't that a little dangerous?"
 
wjousts said:


I've heard that before about radium in paint. When I was still in school we had a physics lab tech who had a watch with radium paint on it. He'd use it to demostrate the Geiger counter. Why he still wore it every day I don't know.
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Radium's mainly an alpha emitter, which is no problem unless you swallow or inhale it.

More about radium:
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/radium.htm
 
Re: Re: Uranium in the good old days

wjousts said:


No, but you should check out this link Uranium Glass Gallery
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Very nice. Thank you.

There's a chapter in Eva Curie's biography of her mother where she tells how Marie and Pierre would go to the laboratory at night and the glass equipment would be giving off this otherworldly green glow from the radium they'd been extracting from the freightcar load of junk pitchblend - as I recall, acquired for the shipping costs from a mine (in Germany?) after all the usable uranium had been removed. (memory hazy as to exact details)
 
Torlack said:
Radium was commonly used in clocks at watches. While I worked at the EPA, we had a site we were looking at which was an old watch plant. Many people died because they would stick the brush in their mouth to bring it to a point.

:(
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I saw a good documentary on that a while back, called Radium City, about the Radium Dial Company. Very tragic story. Many young women went to work there because they were paying way more than other employers in the vicinity. Most of them died of cancer and ones who lived into old age suffered decalcification of the bones. Although they were studied and examined by the Argonne National Laboratory, none of them were ever helped or compensated. The company was never fined, charged, or otherwise held accountable. It just closed up shop and bulldozed everything into a pit. A park was built on top of the contaminated site. The company reincorporated under names.
 
My highschool physics teacher had an orange saucer, called Fiestaware(sp?), that used a uranium glaze. He brought it out of the back room with a Geiger counter one day.

He also had an altimeter from a WWII plane that had uranium in the needle.
 
On the subject of early death - Enrico Fermi died of cancer at age 53 or so. You don't suppose it had anything to do with this project? http://hep.uchicago.edu/cp1.html

Artist's rendering: http://www.npp.hu/tortenelem/genezis-e.htm

For some reason they don't say exactly how much uranium oxide was required.

The idea of a group of guys with buckets of boreated water, standing on top of the pile, waiting to douse an out-of-control chain reaction, has always astounded me.

I've never heard what happened to all the graphite and uranium afterward. Or how much residual radiation remains at the squash court.

Added: Whoa, Chulbert. I actually have a bunch of orange Fiestaware. Now I have to find a Geiger counter.
 
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