The Promises of Going Nuclear
As you can learn from the U.S. Department of Energy and other relatively dry sources, uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It has the chemical symbol “U.” Uranium metal is very dense, even more dense than lead; it also has the highest atomic weight of all naturally occurring elements.
Here is what is not excessively dense and overly weighty: the volume under review. Though packed with scientific and historic facts, the book also has more than its share of light-hearted moments, such as describing the range in Bohemia (now part of the Czech Republic) where an oxide of uranium was first isolated in 1789 and where early miners had their own theory about why that region might have been toxic, suspecting “evil mountain gnomes who were intent on punishing those who violated their underground domain.”
For some time — post-gnome years, that is — uranium largely served as a colorant for ceramic glazes and for tinting in early photography. We find, for example, glassware being embraced by manufacturers and royalty — including “silver mounted candlesticks with prisms of topaz glass coloured with uranium that were presented to Queen Adelaide in 1836.” And, in the same vein, there were 12 finger bowls made by British glass manufacturer Whitefriars, which were made of “uranium topaz glass that were used by the Corporation of London Banquets for the new queen, Victoria,” in 1837.
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