Uranium Glass By Barrie Skelcher

The chemistry textbooks tell us that uranium was discovered by the German chemist, Martin Heinrich Klaproth, in 1789, which is perhaps a simplification of the truth. The element was named after the planet Uranus and what Klaproth reported to the Royal Prussian Academy of Science in that year was uranium oxide, which he had separated from the heavy, black mineral known as pitchblende. The element itself was not isolated until 1841, but this did not stop it from being used in glassmaking.