The only reference to selenium glass I have seen is in an antique bottle
book:

"The Antique Bottle Collector"  by Grace Kendrick.  1966 Old Time Bottle
Publishing Co. 611 Lancaster Dr. Salem, Oregon 97301.

I don't know how accurate the information is, but other information
concerning bottle manufacturing attributes and solarized/amethyst glass are
accurate.

Kendrick has the dates for Amber (straw-colored) glass at 1914-1930.  The
book says that WWI cut off the main supply for manganese (from Germany) and
U.S. bottle makers began using selenium to clarify the glass.  Apparently
when exposed to sunlight, this glass becomes solarized to an amber straw
color.

I hope this helps.

M. Jay Stottman
Kentucky Archaeological Survey
----- Original Message -----
From: "Cathy Spude" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2003 5:34 PM
Subject: dates on selenium-clarified glass


HISTarchers:

I'm ready to throw in the towel. I have the great misfortune to be writing
up a report someone else did the excavation and artifact descriptions for.
The lab analyst sometimes put down a start date of 1914 for
selenium-clarified glass and sometimes 1915. While it seems a minor point,
it appears, these fragments are my terminous post quem in a few cases. The
lab manual supplied with the report documentation does not give me a
citation for her date for selenium clarified glass. My limited library does
not seem to want to yield up much information on the subject.

Can anyone give me a solid date (is there such a thing?) and a citation? It
would be nice to have an ending date, too, if possible. I believe its 1934
or 1935 or thereabouts. Again, I have no citations, so don't know for sure.

I expect the beginning date has to do with the cut-off of manganese from
Europe in about 1915, making 1915 a reasonable date.

Oh, and can anyone corroborate my suspicions that it might be pretty hard
to tell selenium-clarified glass just by looking at it? This stuff came
from a buried context (not solarized). Should I be suspicious?



  Catherine Holder Spude ¨ Archeologist ¨ Cultural Resources Management ¨
    National Park Service ? Intermountain Region ¨ 505.988.6831Voice ¨
                             505.988.6876 Fax


 The National Park Service cares for special places saved by the American
              people so that all may experience our heritage.



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