led virses fluorescent blacklight

[bonniemarbles]

Steph kicked my gears  into looking  further into my marble's potential fluorescent glows. Out of curiosity and with "stay at home" time on my hands, this is what I've so far gleaned: led and fluorescence are the same in ability to make things glow, it's how they are made to perform that makes the difference. They basic blacklight bulb can be made with a dark "Woods" glass or a version of colored glass, which give a dim fluorescent glow, good for kids posters or Halloween costumes, but all agreed they were the worst for serious glows. The led bulb gave a good glow, on par with black light fluorescent tubes, but had a glare, were more expensive, & gave off more visible outer light spread, while the black light fluorescent tubes did as good a job producing an excellent glow, but were less expensive, had little glare, & very little visible light spread. These are just my lay-mans findings, &, having only seen what my cell phone camera does, I can't wait now to get a fluorescent black light to try- what a world that first bottle of marbles has opened for me! Bonnie

[Al Oregon]

Good info - thanks.

[wvrons]

There is also a difference in black lights.  The electric fluorescent long tube type give a different response than the small hand held battery operated more like a flashlight black light. I think it has to do with wave length.  LED and fluorescence are the same in ability to make things glow. Are you talking about LED black light or normal LED white light ?  There are different black lights and they can show different colors or reactions depending on which type black light is used.  There are different black lights and many different LED lights. With the same glass some black lights will show green color glow and a different black light may show orange color glow. Some of this also depends on exactly what is inside the glass and responsible for the glow. 

[bonniemarbles]

 

So do we keep several diff. ones around to try on various marbles to see how they respond to ea., or do certain marble makers marbles always show one or another color glow so that helps us know what to classify them under? Bonnie

[wvrons]

Some marbles do need to glow as a requirement for that certain marble, like Akro Lemonade, etc. A few can be identified easier if they do or do not glow. But the big majority of the time the black light glow will not be a big factor. Old marbles can glow as well as brand new marbles.  Experienced collectors can use a black light sometimes to make a final decision. There is no published list of marbles old or new that should glow.  Many glow because the original cullet used in making the marble also glowed. Some of the oldest machine made companies did it as planned production. Almost if not every marble maker made some marbles that will glow under black light. Which type black light you use can depend on what response you get.   

[bonniemarbles]

No list of which marbles glows how- darn I thought I had a new way to get a clue as to what I have- thanks for the information everyone-Bonnie

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[Steph]

I'm still confused about what kind of light you're using, Bonnie.

 

Could you go into a dark area and shine it on those lavender Jabos and take a picture of the result?  

 

 

[Woodse]

https://www.livescience.com/50326-what-is-ultraviolet-light.html

I use a small UV flashlight from Harbor Freight. They are about $9 and it works ok. It's fun to use at night to see what glows. At least we don't have scorpions in WV. Pest control uses them out west to locate them.

[Marbleized]

Aren't all blacklight flashlight LED now, unless you have an older one?  Regular LED lights that you put in your lamps don't make marbles glow, so I'm thinking bonniemarble, that you are referring to LED blacklight flashlights as opposed to the old-fashioned incandescent blacklight?  Or did you test out the UV light that they use to disinfect things? If you are referring to UV lights, that would be pretty interesting.  I've never tried that. That would be interesting to see.

[Nantucketdink]

What do folks recommend.  I have tried old fashioned standard bulb size blacklight bulbs, squigley shape newer style blacklight bulbs, I had longer tube style plug in blacklight at one point, and the handheld tube style.  I also tried a couple very cheap but older flashlights supposedly blacklights that basically were not.  From the things I have tried the only one I have relied on is the tube handheld battery ones because of ease of use.  I think I still have both kinds of screw in standard sized black light bulbs somewhere.  The handheld one works for me, but if there is something folks like better I want to try it.  The standard sized bulbs required a lamp of some sort which then was sort of a pain to move around and store.  I haven't tried any kind of UV led light at all for the purpose of exposing UV reactive glass.  I love led lights for other uses however.  Stick with what works or is there a more powerful focussed beam solution out there that is user friendly?  LOVE LOVE LOVE my cheap led loupe.  Everybody must get one!

[Nantucketdink]

Blacklights are even cheaper than they used to be.  Surprising.  Giving these two a shot.  The tube one is 10".  

[Nantucketdink]

This is what I use now.  They are cheap but last unless you drop them too many times.  This is my second one.  They are still available under 10 bucks with shipping I just saw on ebay.