Why Did These Have Radioactive Material Added?

In this video I talk about this table full of radioactive uranium glazed ceramics...why did these have radioactive material added to them?

Patreon Thanks:
(Gamma Radiation Tier)
Brennen Boyer
K Taylor
Don Reyes
Matt Pickering
Nathan McNab

Radeye B20:

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[RevMikeBlack]

That's the nicest collection of Fiestaware I've ever seen. Most impressive.

[notthecia]

Damn grandmas famous glowing potato salad really has a different meaning now

[landonferguson]

It's interesting to see how common these items still are in antique shops. There must have been a lot of them made.

[TheGreatGastronaut]

Hi Drew:
It’s actually not surprising that the ashtray may have been made by Coors (yes, the same company as the famous brewery) because in addition to brewing, they also have a long history in precision ceramics manufacturing. Coors ceramics division manufactures scientific and industrial ceramics and was located adjacent to the brewery. Not sure if that is all still true today.

[thisisyourcaptainspeaking]

Keeps your food warm on those cold winter nights.

[Brielshallouf]

I’m imagining you just walking around goodwill with your counter 😂 ooo nice plates “beep beep beep

[ko_medic]

When my in-laws come over for dinner we use the “special orange China”

[VickyShawcooksalot]

Got to remember the radium girls. The radium health drinks, and all the cosmetics and skincare. 😳

[chitowndubable]

Wasn’t aware uranium was used in color I collect uranium and vaseline glass never heard of these thanks for the info

[KRAFTWERKK]

Enameled cooking ware was also often treated with such coatings. So the color makes it pretty easy to spot if you find such pots in your grandma's kitchen.

[oldminer]

Thank you for posting Drew. I think my grandmother had several pieces of this dinner ware.

[peterwexler]

You are the "Everyday Astronaut" of all things radioactive. I love your work.

[BackYardScience]

Very nice collection, man! I'm somewhat jealous! I only have a handful of these, but they are pretty damn active for what they are and their size.

[KirtFitzpatrick]

I think I actually have one of these ceramics in my house. The orange color is spot on and I bought it from an antique shop. It's one of my favorites.

[rustymotor]

Lovely collection! I have a few radioactive orange Fiestaware items and some Uranium glassware pieces, one piece belonged to my great Grandmother and it is a lot more radioactive than the other glass items plus it really glows nicely under the Ultraviolet lamp.

[danshearer]

My best friend's mom while in high school in the 80's had this stuff. I took my Geiger counter over to the house and showed her what was going on. She immediately got rid of the stuff. It was fun to use it as a source for testing my meters at that time.

[andrewprice]

Recently subscribed from Australia after finding your video from the trinity site which i visited in 2017. Great content & extremely interesting, keep up the quality work!

[ThinkingBetter]

During the years these products were produced, there must have been some really nasty hot spots. A floor with spills of this glaze, containers of the uranium powder, a warehouse with many 1000s of these plates stacked, defective plates being turned into small pieces with uranium dust in the air etc. must have been areas existing with people working there with many hours of exposure.

[brettkelly]

Just started purchasing uranium infused glassware from thrift stores. It’s a lot of fun running around large thrift stores with a black light hunting mystical “glowing” cups and plates! People around me seem equally interested as soon as I find a piece that glows bright green! I completely attribute this hobby to the content I’ve watched in your videos. Uranium detection is super interesting! I’m sure I’ll end up buying a geiger counter in the near future!

[martinsmith]

Wow that is a fantastic collection!
When you say those are 1000 times above background it sounds really scary because if that was true it would be dangerous, but you can't compare beta radiation with the gamma radiation from background. The actual equivalent dose rate is only 1 or 2 times above background.

Another thing I noticed is that the gamma filter is showing 6 uSv/h from a distance when in reality the true gamma dose rate on contact with a plate of 50, 000 cpm is about 0.25 uSv/h. That means that the filter is not blocking all of the beta radiation. You can test this by placing a non radioactive plate on top of a radioctive one to shield the beta radiation and then measuring the gamma dose rate with the filter on the B20.