Glass nugget (solidified glass melt)

The collection of the Museum of Applied Arts preserves many artefacts made of uranium glass for a wide range of functions. Glass objects coloured by adding uranium oxide to the melt were typically popular decorative and cabinet pieces to satisfy the Biedermeier period's need for intense colour. The green and yellow shades of uranium glass, which were known in the era as Annagrün and Annagelb, were developed by the Bohemian glass technician Josef Riedel in the 1830s. Riedel named the particularly bright colours after his wife, Anna. From the middle of the 19th century, commemorative and spa-cure glasses, and more rarely drinkware, lampshades and even pharmacy bottles were made of this material. The explanation of this fact is that these objects have low uranium content and produce minimal radiation, thus carry no hazard to human health. Uranium glass, which is yellow or green in natural light, usually fluoresces in neon green, sometimes in neon orange, in UV light.