Topic: URANIUM USE; DATES ?

[justphil]

I have a very common Bagley vase in the "Carnival" design with a moulded Design Registration No. 849118 which signifies the year 1946. So what, you might think, but it is in uranium glass and I have long thought that the use of uranium oxide in glass was discontinued in the UK in the 1930's when the health risks became known. Using potentially dangerous materials to manufacture such a mundane and non-essential item must have seemed morally dubious even at that time, even though livelyhoods were at stake. Times were hard, but blimey !
Raw materials for glass production must have been in short supply so soon after the war, so perhaps Bagley used up some supplies of uranium oxide that happened to be lying around ( !! ) in their store room, regardless of the known health risks.
Was this unusual ? Legal?

[Lustrousstone]

Rumour has it that Bagley's stocks of uranium glass were confiscated by the government in about 1946 and they didn't use it again; that is obviously not accurate when you consider the large amount of uranium Carnival with the registration number on it. If glass was confiscated it was more to do with nuclear bombs than health risks. The use of uranium in glass appears to have been banned in the US from about 1943, probably for the same reason. It was during the ban period that any health risks started to be considered. The ban was lifted in 1958 in the US but the health and safety regulations were tightened. Uranium is still used in glass today - the 1970s seems to have been a particular boom period in Murano and Scandinavia. Uranium oxide is radioactive but not particularly hazardous - it is expensive though

[justphil]

Very interesting. I have never come across any published information on this, so your knowledge is valuable.
Thank you.