Did people use uranium before nukes?

[Red Stranger]

Were uraniums ever used in anything before they were used for nukes? If I recall correctly, uranium isn't a green glowing thing in its natural form. It is just a rock. Has there been archeological evidence of people using it to build a house or an oven or a sword?

 

[The Last Conformist]

Uranium wasn't discovered until 1789. Before radioactivity was discovered, it received alot of attention for the flourescent properties of many uranium compounds, but I do not know if they found any practical applications back then. (In the 20th century, they've been used for glow-in-the-dark wristwatches and the like.)

It's worth noting that pure uranium is neither green nor glowing.

 

[BasketCase]

Found this after a random Google:
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/uranium.htm

The use of uranium, in its natural oxide form, dates back to at least 79 A.D., when it was used to add color to ceramic glazes. The German chemist Martin Klaproth is credited with discovering uranium in samples of the mineral pitchblende in 1789. It was first isolated as a metal in 1841 by Eugene-Melchior Peligot. Uranium was discovered to be radioactive in 1896 by French physicist Henri Becquerel. Through his work with uranium metals, he was the first to discover the process of radioactivity.

 

[Gladi]

Be well.
No. It is rock, but not very usefull one either. Even today there are extremely few non-nuclear uses. In fact the only one I can think of from top of my head is using uranium to colour glass- it gives it phosphoric-looking yellow-green shine. But I think that is recently developed.

 

[Ultima Dragoon]

I remeber something about uranium-tipped bunker busters.... something like that because of it's density, it's a good bunker busting material.... or something. Don't know if this is before nukes.....

 

[The Last Conformist]

I remeber something about uranium-tipped bunker busters.... something like that because of it's density, it's a good bunker busting material.... or something. Don't know if this is before nukes.....

It's after nukes.

 

[Ultima Dragoon]

Do'h.

I have a headache, couldn't remember it for the life of me.

 

[mrtn]

Be well.
No. It is rock, but not very usefull one either. Even today there are extremely few non-nuclear uses. In fact the only one I can think of from top of my head is using uranium to colour glass- it gives it phosphoric-looking yellow-green shine. But I think that is recently developed.

They made that glassware before they realised it's dangerous.

 

[aahz_capone]

I seem to remember a James Bond movie where Bond tested a Giger counter on his (uranium glowing) watch. It's amazing they actually thought that wearing something radioactive was OK. I mean... Duh!

 

[Kayak]

I seem to remember a James Bond movie where Bond tested a Giger counter on his (uranium glowing) watch. It's amazing they actually thought that wearing something radioactive was OK. I mean... Duh!

You have no idea. The main company that used to manufacture these things was located in New Jersey. The girls (mostly immigrants from asia) who used to apply the radioactive paint did it by hand. They would place the brushes in their mouths to wet them and get the finest possible point. The radioactivity ate away at their teeth and jaws. The founder of the company died protesting that there were no harful effects from the paint (of cancer).

 

[Sophie 378]

The girls (mostly immigrants from asia) who used to apply the radioactive paint did it by hand. They would place the brushes in their mouths to wet them and get the finest possible point. The radioactivity ate away at their teeth and jaws. The founder of the company died protesting that there were no harmful effects from the paint (of cancer).

Called Phossy Jaw or something, wasn't it? I thought that was a radioactive phosphorus isotope, not uranium. May be wrong though.

 

[Birdjaguar]

In the late 1950s my great uncle would take me and my brother on hikes around his Boonton NJ home. He would bring along his geiger counter and we would look for rocks that set it off. As I recall we did find some. But in the 50s, bombs and uranium were all the talk.

 

[Renata]

You have no idea. The main company that used to manufacture these things was located in New Jersey. The girls (mostly immigrants from asia) who used to apply the radioactive paint did it by hand. They would place the brushes in their mouths to wet them and get the finest possible point. The radioactivity ate away at their teeth and jaws. The founder of the company died protesting that there were no harful effects from the paint (of cancer).

Phosphorus, not uranium, as Sophie said. Elemental phosphorus glows (from which comes the term "phosphorescence".) It's not radioactive, though, just very toxic. Phossy jaw was degradation of bone tissue, not cancer.

 

[Perfection]

Called Phossy Jaw or something, wasn't it? I thought that was a radioactive phsophorus isotope, not uranium. May be wrong though.

IIRC Phossy Jaw comes from too much contact with the piosonous white allotrope of phosphorous.

 

[The Last Conformist]

I seem to remember a James Bond movie where Bond tested a Giger counter on his (uranium glowing) watch. It's amazing they actually thought that wearing something radioactive was OK. I mean... Duh!

It bears repeating that the glow isn't from the radioactivity, but from flourescence. The activity of the uranium compounds used pretty low; lower than that from any old rock that happens to contain appreciable amounts of radium.

 

[Ansar]

I thought uranium made you glow in the dark? or is that just something made up?

 

[Gladi]

They made that glassware before they realised it's dangerous.

It is NOT dangerous, I own a recently-made uranium-tinted glass sculpture (cann you call it sculpture?)

PS: the main problem with radiation is inhaling- thus Radon is by far the most dangerous thing people will encounter.

 

[Perfection]

I thought uranium made you glow in the dark? or is that just something made up?

No, uranium makes you die.

 

[The Last Conformist]

I thought uranium made you glow in the dark? or is that just something made up?

If someone painted you with a paint containing any of the many flourescent uranium compounds, you'd glow in the dark.

 

[mrtn]

It is NOT dangerous, I own a recently-made uranium-tinted glass sculpture (cann you call it sculpture?)

PS: the main problem with radiation is inhaling- thus Radon is by far the most dangerous thing people will encounter.

Well, the glass I saw on television a couple of years back (a program about the Curies, IIRC) was made with uranium salts about 100 years ago, and had to be locked up with other radioactive waste.