He may have been thinking of 'vaseline glass', the yellow-green colour coming from the 2% addition of uranium dioxide (U238) during the manufacturing process.  It was first produced during the 1830s with a pair of candlesticks being presented to Queen Victoria in 1836.  It was very popular 1880-1920, and I believe is still manufactured somewhere in the US today??

Collectors use the green flourescence under a blacklight to differentiate this type of glass from those manufactured with a manganese additive, however one Professor of Chemistry I spoke to said the only way you could be certain whether the glass contained U238 was to subject it to EMS.  He further suggested that all glass of yellow-green colouration will flouresce to some degree, and dentification as 'vaseline glass' may be due to biases of the owner/collector.  There are of course numerous websites and books dedicated to this particular type of glass.

Jennifer