How to Know It's Vaseline Glass
During the Victorian era, glass makers began using uranium oxide as a colorant in glass. The uranium gave the glass an opaque, yellow-green color reminiscent a common brand of petroleum jelly, Vaseline. Vaseline glass (also called uranium glass) was produced steadily until 1943, when commercial use of uranium was banned due to WWII. In November of 1958, the ban was lifted and production resumed. There are still glass makers who make Vaseline glass today, but production is expensive and highly regulated. Its space-age, yellow-green color and the fact that it fluoresces under ultra-violet light make it popular among collectors. There are three easy ways to recognize true Vaseline glass.
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Instructions
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Take a look at the color. It should be in the yellow to green spectrum.
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2
View the glass under a black light. The uranium in the glass will fluoresce green under ultra-violet light. A black light pen is a handy tool for identifying Vaseline glass.
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3
Use a Geiger counter. Uranium is radioactive and a sensitive meter will pick up the trace amounts of radioactivity. Don't worry about the radiation. The trace amounts of radiation found in Vaseline glass are not harmful.
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Tips & Warnings
The term Vaseline glass is used loosely. It is important to know what other types of glass can be called Vaseline glass since not all collectors see them as equals. Custard glass, so named because of its milky white to off white color, was made with uranium salts and not oxides. Burmese glass has a pink tinge to it because gold was added with uranium oxide. Depression-era glass is a term used for a more transparent green glass that has iron oxide along with uranium oxide.
Beware of manganese. Manganese was also used as a colorant in glass and will make it fluoresce, but it will glow red or orange, not green. It is not true Vaseline glass.
