**4. Uranium glass**

The German chemist Klaproth in 1789 detected a new element, uranium, by analysing pitchblende from the Johanngeorgenstadt silver deposit. Its name (uranit, later uranium) was derived from the planet Uranus, discovered in 1781 by F.W. Herschel. Later, A.H. Becquerel discovered the phenomenon of radioactivity. His student Marie Sklodowska-Curie by study of some pitchblende samples, including samples from the Jáchymov uranium deposit, recognised that pitchblende has higher radioactivity as pure uranium salts. Later, together with her husband P. Curie, in 1898, they discovered two new elements: radium and polonium. Radium was used in self-luminous paints and in medicine to produce radon gas. Research by O. Hahn, L. Meitner and F. Strassmann in 1934 led to using of uranium as a fuel in the nuclear

Uranium minerals were noticed by miners in some silver ore deposits from the Ore Mts. area (Krušné Hory/Erzgebirge) for a long time prior the uranium discovery. The uranium mineral pitchblende was reported from this ore district as early as 1565. However, the miners have found that in places with higher occurrence of uraninite silver and its minerals disappear. The first occurrence of pitchblende entails trouble (pitch). Along with silver ores, some cobaltbearing minerals later were also mined, which were used for production of some enamels for glass and ceramic industry. In Jáchymov, main silver deposit on the Czech (Bohemian) side of the Ore Mts. area, the first enamel factory originated in 1780. After the discovery of organic ultramarine colours in 1828, the market for the more expensive cobalt colours was closed.

The German dispensing chemist Klaproth (1743–1817) had in his experimental laboratory in Berlin performed some experiments with pitchblende from the Johanngeorgenstadt uranium deposits in the Saxony. During these experiments in Berlin in 1789, Klaproth was able to precipitate a yellow compound (likely sodium diuranate) by dissolving pitchblende in nitric acid and neutralising the solution with sodium hydroxide. Klaproth assumed this yellow compound was the oxide of a yet-undiscovered element. By heating this substance with charcoal, he obtained a black powder, which he thought was the newly discovered element itself [1]. However, that powder was an oxide of uranium. Klaproth named the newly discovered element after the planet Uranus, which had been discovered eight years earlier by William Herschel. First sample of uranium metal was prepared in 1841 by Eugéne-Melchior Péligot, professor of analytical chemistry on the Central School of Arts and Manufactures in Paris, by

Klaproth had later experimented with using some yellow uranium compounds as glass colours. Some other chemists from silver metallurgical work in the Jáchymov started also with experiments using these yellow components in glassmaking industry. The Ministry for

power industry and first nuclear weapons.

**2. Discovery of pitchblende and uranium**

2 Uranium - Safety, Resources, Separation and Thermodynamic Calculation

heating uranium tetrachloride with potassium [2].

**3. Use of pitchblende in glass and porcelain industries**

Uranium glass became popular in the mid-nineteenth century, with its period of greatest popularity being from 1880s to the 1920s [2, 4]. The most typical colour of uranium glass is pale yellowish-green, which in the 1920s led to the nickname Vaseline glass based on a perceived resemblance to the appearance of petroleum jelly as formulated and commercially sold at that time. Vaseline glass is usually used for any uranium glass especially in the United States. The first major producer of uranium glass is commonly recognised as Franz Xaver Anton Riedel (1782–1844) from the Dolní Polubný (Unter-Polaun) in the Jizera Mountains, North Bohemia. This glassmaker had started with the production of uranium glass in 1841 and had developed yellow and green uranium glass named after his daughter Anna yellow (Anna gelb) and Anna green (Anna grünn). Some other uranium glassworks existed in this time in the Krkonoše Mts. (Riesengebirge), on the boundary between Bohemia and Poland (Harrachov in the Czech Republic and Szklary in Poland) and in the South Bohemia (Lenora, Josefsthal near Zvonková). A glassmaker from the Nový Svět near Harrachov developed and on the fair in Prague (1831) presented new, partly opaque uranium "Chrysoprasglass" [5].

purchased mine tailings from the Jáchymov uranium deposit and started isolating radium. In 1904, the Austrian government nationalised all mines in the Jáchymov and stopped exporting raw uranium ore. The formation of an Austrian monopoly and the strong urge of other countries to have access to radium led to a worldwide search for uranium ores. New uranium ore

History of Uranium Mining in Central Europe http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.71962 5

Ernest Rutherford and Robert B. Owens discovered radon in 1899. In 1900, Friedrich Ernst Dorn in some experiments found that radium emanates a radioactive gas, which was named radium emanation. Later, similar emanations for thorium and actinium were found, which

The danger of high exposure to radon in silver-uranium mines has long been known. Georg Agricola, physician in Jáchymov, recommended ventilation in mines to avoid this mountain sickness (Bergsucht). In 1879, this condition was identified as lung cancer by investigation of miners from the Schneeberg silver-uranium deposit in the Saxony [12]. The first major studies with radon and health were performed in the context of uranium mining in the Jáchymov ore deposit [13, 14]. Recently, a detailed study of the influence of radon on miners' health in the

Exposure to radon, a process known as radiation hormesis, has been suggested to mitigate diseases of movement system such as rheumatoid arthritis, spondylitis, ankylosing spondylitis, condition after orthopaedic surgeries, diseases of peripheral nervous system and metabolic diseases. Radioactive water baths have been applied since 1906 in Jáchymov, since

Radioactivity of the first radioactive water springs in the Jáchymov mine Werner was measured by Austrian physicists Heinrich Mache and Stefan Meyer in 1905. They found higher radioactivity (2.5 kBq/l) [19]. These results started Jáchymov spa history. The first spa house was opened in 1911 (recently spa centre Agricola). In year 1912, a luxury spa house Radium Palace was opened. During years 1908–1924, the Štěp springs from the Werner mine was used for radon bath therapy. In 1924, spring Curie at the 12th level of the Svornost mine (30 l/min, 29°C, 5 kBq/l) was found. After closing uranium mining in the Jáchymov area, in 1960–1962, new hydrogeological exploration of radioactive springs at the 12th level of the Svornost mine was performed. Two new radioactive water springs were found (H-1 and HG-1 – Běhounek, 300 l/min, up to 36°C, 10 kBq/l). More recently performed hydrogeological exploration was

In Bad Brambach, a new spring of radon water was found by Max Weiding in 1911. The high radioactive water spring was later named Wettinquele and was used for radiotherapy from 1915 and represented a mineral water spring with the highest radioactivity in the world (26 kBq/l). The radon spa in Bad Brambach from 1945 to 1948 was used as nursing home for the Soviet arms and since 1949 is used as a spa for all patients with diseases of movement system [16].

deposits were found in United States, Belgian Congo and Canada.

**6. Discovery of radon and origin of radon spas**

Czech uranium mines was published by Řeřicha et al. [15].

1912 in Bad Brambach and since 1918 in Oberschlema, Saxony [16–18].

found in 2000 spring Agricola (10 l/min, 29°C, 20 kBq/l) [20–24].

were named as radon, thoron and actinon [10, 11].

Production of uranium glass was popular also in the other European countries, especially in Great Britain, France and Germany. In the Great Britain, it was glassworks in London (White friars) and Sturbridge area (Thomas Webb glasswork). In France, the first uranium glass was produced in glasswork Choisy-le Roi in Paris in 1838. The uranium glass in France was later named as "Cristal Dichroide".

The highly different uranium glass products produced by glassworks in the North and South Bohemia mainly pressed glass cups and polished vases and were very popular souvenirs sold predominantly in the West Bohemian health resorts (Karlovy Vary, Mariánské Lázně, Františkovy Lázně) [2]. These glass products from the uranium glass were very important utility products of the Biedermeier and Art Nouveau periods.
