Bottles Bathed in UV Light

If you like the color purple, manganese dioxide is your friend.  More specifically, if you like pretty lavender and amethyst-colored antique bottles, manganese dioxide is your friend.

It’s manganese dioxide in the glass that, when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light, slowly turns the clear glass purple.  And this is particularly interesting because the manganese dioxide was originally used in glass to decolorize or clear the glass, which by nature will take on an array of colors depending on impurities.

If you want one of these purple bottles, you need to find bottles manufactured from the somewhere between the mid-1880s and the 1920s.  By the 1920s the glass-making process drifted away from the use of manganese dioxide.  And you will need plenty of UV light to produce more profound colors.

I have some bottles with just a hint of violet.  But I want deep purple.  And I want it now.  I could well turn purple long before the bottle if I waited for the sun to do the work.   For that reason, I ordered an ultraviolet-C (UVC) lamp for a more intense source of ultraviolet rays.

Yesterday I converted one of my trash bins into a light chamber.  I placed three bottles on an overturned five-gallon bucket inside the bin, dangled the UVC light overtop, and closed the lid on the chamber.

So, you ask, why a chamber?

Ultraviolet-C radiation is a recognized disinfectant for air, water, and nonporous surfaces.  Some research suggests UVC light may be carcinogenic.  And UV light is responsible (ironically in this instance) for causing colors of our stuff to fade.

For those reasons, a chamber.

My UV Chamber

Inside the UV Chamber

—Mitchell Hegman