Radioactive Collectibles
05.08.08 By Derek DahlsadWe’ve talked about the dangers of various collectibles, from frayed wires to poisonous flatware, including some of the more insidious of dangerous collectibles: radioactive collectibles. There’s more to this genre of collectibles, including a number of quite-safe items, but the background is fascinating.
You may have noticed a couple weeks ago, when I posted a number of photos I got at an antique shop. One photo was of a large, clapboard-sided building, huge letters painted on the side: RADIUM WATER. As a child of the post-atomic age, the dangers of radioactivity were part of my gradeschool education. We learned of fallout, half-lives, and a group of women called the Radium Girls who were slowly killed by the radium paint they used to illuminate watch dials. As far as radium goes, it’s not as energetic as its more unstable brothers, but its radioactive properties still cause enough damage. On top of it all, radium degrades into the carcinogenic noble gas radon.
Radioactivity was first discovered and experimented with in the late 19th century and early 20th century, so by the 1910s and 1920s just enough was known about this magical property of unstable atoms to be, honestly, dangerous. At the lowest end, radioactivity was deemed ’safe’, and many people and doctors believed radioactivity had a curative nature. In cases like ‘radium spas’, natural water sources that had a degree of natural radioactivity were touted as fountains of youth. For those unlucky enough to not have a natural repository of radioactive materials (’unlucky’ being subjective), radioactive objects could be purchased and used for their imagined medical properties.
Irradiating water was one of the biggest quack remedies utilizing these dangerous compounds. 
“Radium jars” like the one on the right were large crocks for containing water, with either radioactive elements in the clay or added as a separate piece. It’s wise to realize that, while radium is itself a radioactive element, the term ‘radium’ was used as a catch-all for any radioactive substance, including polonium and uranium. Radium jars potentially contained a large amount of uranium, while others had barely enough to set off a geiger counter. As for the dangerousness of these items, unless you’re trained in detecting radiation, you’re taking some unpleasant risks if you’re buying from an inexperienced seller, or ‘discover’ an item when the previous owner has no idea how radioactive it is — you don’t want the EPA at your house taking measurements when the neat little thing you found turns out to be enormously radioactive. Objects that no longer contain radioactive materials did not retain radioactivity for very long after the source was removed, and their prominent labels describing their radioactivity are sure to attract attention without actually carrying any danger. Displaying a radium water jar in your kitchen or a Radithor bottle in your medicine cabinet may make your guests uncomfortable, unless that’s your intent.
Red and ivory Fiestaware are some of the more common radioactive collectibles you can buy without 
significant risk. While the glaze could have up to several grams of uranium in it, unless you’re actually using it for dining or have amassed a large amount of it, your radiation exposure is negligible. Uranium in glazes wasn’t limited only to Fiestaware (although they were the most productive at it) — many rich, vibrant glazes used natural or depleted uranium in the glaze…and some potters are still using it today. Vaseline Glass is also moderately radioactive due to the inclusion of uranium to add a luminescence to the glass. Vaseline glass, however, has even less radioactive content than Fiestaware, and while it might set off a geiger counter, aside from inhaling or eating the glass itself exposure to vaseline glass is even less dangerous.
If you’ve got a glowing antique watch from before the 1940s, it is probably radium. Radium paint itself isn’t overly dangerous — the substance needed to be inhaled or eaten to have significant medical problems. You still need to use care with radium-dialed clocks, to avoid the paint flaking or being scraped off due to carelessness. If you’ve got a modern clock with glowing spots, you may still have something radioactive: tritium is used today, a radioactive substance that like radium is harmful when inhaled or consumed, but otherwise not particularly dangerous in the small amounts used. Tritium has a shorter half-life, so the radiation decays relatively quick, the radiation doesn’t penetrate skin, and it doesn’t decay into anything dangerous. Tritium is used in things from instrument panels on airplanes to gun sights. If you wanted to own something actively and visibly radioactive, replacement gun sight parts with tritium are rather inexpensive.
Although not inherently radioactive, around the same time science became fascinated with everyday applications for x-rays, from fitting shoes to checking your tires. These did put out quite a bit of radiation, but posed little danger when turned off. Aside from the inherently dangerous, like imbibing something radioactive or possessing something that’s kicking out neutrons at an alarming rate, the fun of collecting these quasi-harmful items comes from modern knowledge of radiation and its effects, and knowing just how naive the public was that once irradiated their feet for comfort, drank radium to feel better, and ate from uranium-laced plates. It’s a wonder humanity survived past the 1960s, and your shelves can hold a few reminders of the past atomic age.
Related items currently available for sale
|
|
|
|
|
|
---
Article Tags: collecting, fiestaware, radioactive, radium================
Gotta Collect? Then You Gotta Connect - Join our Collectors’ Community!
