Last Updated: May 07, 2019     Views: 2410

Image: "New Rose Color from Selenium, 1894." From Frederick Carder's notebook "Recipes for making flint & colored glass, some old & some new." Rakow Library 112162.

Hello! Thank you for your question!

Below is an explanation from Dr. Robert Brill, Research Scientist Emeritus of The Corning Museum of Glass:

Usually, selenium is used in glassmaking to produce either pink transparent glasses or (in the form of cadmium selenide) ruby-colored glasses. The ruby glasses were used -- and probably still are used -- for signal lamps. 

Selenium was probably not used much before the closing years of the 19th century or after the turn of the 20th century, perhaps about 1910. By the 1930s (or perhaps a little earlier) it was commonly used in decorative pressed glasses. I always think of selenium in connection with the sort of pink candy dishes or the like given away at movie theatres in the 1930s.

Because of its pink color, it was used as a decolorizer. The pink color would offset the aqua color caused by iron impurities.

Online Research Guide

You might also be interested in the Rakow Library's research guide on color.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with your glass-related questions in the future.

 

 

 

 

 

Comments (1)

  1. Hello! There is more information on the history of selenium glass at https://ceramics.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1151-2916.1919.tb18751.x https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ie50043a031 and https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/260658-1892-franz-welz-usa-patent-from-austria?in=activity The second link is particularly interesting as it is a copy of the 1912 'Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry'.
    by Damon Kowarsky on May 10, 2020

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