Making uranium glass

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Published 2020-02-15
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For this project, I'll be making radioactive uranium glass, which was very popular 100 years ago. Under a blacklight, the uranium in it fluoresces to give off a nice green color.

WARNING: Working with uranium and radioactive material is dangerous, and this video is for entertainment/educational purposes only. Please don't try and repeat what you see. Also, when the project is done, the waste needs to be dealt with and handled properly. On my second channel, NileBlue, I show what I did with it and you can check it out here:    • Cleaning up my uranium waste  

References:
• Applied Science: youtube.com/user/bkraz333
• Cody'sLab: youtube.com/user/theCodyReeder
• Cloudylabs:    • Cloudylabs cloud chamber working appr...  

Uranium waste cleanup on NileBlue:    • Cleaning up my uranium waste  

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Nile talks about lab safety:    • Chemistry is dangerous.  

Music in credits (Walker by SORRYSINES): soundcloud.com/sorrysines/walker

All Comments (21)
  • @noahreeverts465
    Biggest thing I've learned from this channel is that between Amazon and eBay you can buy litteraly anything.
  • @echalone
    "I never made glass before, so let's make uranium glass"
  • @shrek3759
    You deserve an award for making Physics and Chemistry fun
  • @ChaoticBad
    I’m actually curious about the radiation readings on the cup he bought.
  • “I’d never worked with uranium before, so I figured I would follow the instructions.” Good plan.
  • @acearachnid
    “The government doesn’t really like it when you show how to refine uranium on the internet.” Damn my Saturday plans are ruined
  • @user-bq2mv6fg3v
    I'm a Boro-silicate laboratory glass blower. I've worked with custom uranium glass before. The trick to keep your specimens from shattering is a technique known as annealing. To accomplish this, you would want 2 separate furnaces. One for melting and the other for annieline. Place your graphite block in the aneeling furnace at about eleven hundred degrees fahrenheit. Open the door once the block and the furnace is preheated. place your spasiman On your graph light block at eleven hundred degrees for at lea half an hour. then Slowly reduce the temperature of your aneeling furnace without opening the door. Over the course of twenty four hours And till your sample is near room temperature And you should not have any internal stress anymore This process aligns the internal crystalline structure of the silica Transforming it into a stress free homogeneous mass. You will want to reduce the temperature on an inverted J curve slowly at first. But once you get past about 400° fahrenheit leaving the door closed u till it has completely cooled you should be fine - James
  • @garyweber7139
    The mother of an old school friend of mine had a large collection of uranium glassware. She kept the glass in a locked leaded glass display cabinet with and alarm system.The artwork was very beautiful, I believe the collection was quite valuable, most was a light green.
  • im just wondering what his search history looks like because it must be insane, I mean seriously "uranium for sale" "uranium glass" "diamond carbonated water for sale" "toilet paper alcohol" "how to make carcinogens"
  • @spenzr6920
    "Nile, that mango yoghurt on the table tastes weird, you should get rid of it" Him: mango yoghurt..?
  • @JerryEricsson
    When I was a kid in the 60's my Brother-in-law worked at a Uranium extraction plant in North Dakota. The plant had. a huge kiln where Uranium ore was dumped in one end, then heated and transported the length of the device and came out the other end in a different form. Occasionally a bolt or nut would drop in with the mix and come out the other end as a blob of steel imbedded with uranium ore. He gave me a couple of these, with the advice, carry them in your pocket for a few weeks and you will never have to worry about making your girl friend pregnant. Well I never did carry them, in fact I donated them to a. museum to be displayed in their mineral collection, where they still lay, emitting radiation into the pure South Dakota air. The Brother-in-law has now gone to his rewards, as has my sister, he good wife, cancer took them both, hell it attacked me as well and my other sister and my good wife of 51 years and 4 days. Mine, the Doctors say is survivable, where the rest of my family's were not. Funny how that works, I am now healing from the holes in my belly where the doctor cut me open and took out my cancerous Kidney and half my adrenal gland.
  • @Lemon9234
    “It might be okay to occasionally wear it as a necklace or something” And that’s the story of how I put a radioactive source directly next to my thyroid.
  • @prestonsukenik187
    Nile: Makes glass once Nile: Proceeds to make the second batch that he has ever made in his life WITH URANIUM
  • It's amazing how many chemicals you can get from cleaning supplies and gardening supplies.
  • @aimee6839
    I love how so many of your statements are basically “I knew this was a bad idea. I did it anyway. It was indeed a bad idea.” It just really sells the Scientific Realism.
  • @SkyGameZZZZ
    I like how he listed “can’t make bombs” under cons lis
  • @Kalina_009
    "I simply had no choice. I had to turn the death rock into death powder. I really had absolutely no choice. 😔" -Nile 2020