[Rockhounds] Fluorescence indoors and out

Fri May 1 07:40:39 PDT 2009

And the cats' litter box.... Felines are very hygienic but have a
notoriously bad aim... 

Axel

> -----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
> Van: rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com
[mailto:rockhounds-bounces at lists.drizzle.com]
> Namens Earl R. Verbeek
> Verzonden: vrijdag 1 mei 2009 15:52
> Aan: 'Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors'
> Onderwerp: RE: [Rockhounds] Fluorescence indoors and out
> 
> Gene Hartstein - Fossilnut.com wrote:
> > Clothing and laundry detergents  fluoresce a bright white. Take a lamp
> > into your laundry room with the lights out.
> 
> Don Halterman wrote:
> And the kitchen and bathroom...
> 
> "Eeeeeeuw!!!"  -- Lisa, former girlfriend
> 
> "Oh holy ***!  What the ****!  You said you cleaned the bathroom
> cabron!"  -- Juan, my former neighbor, to his roommate Miguel
> ------------------------------
> 
> OK, here's a little more on the subject.  It's incomplete, so if any of
you
> have other examples/details to offer, please send them in.  It gets to
rocks
> eventually (scroll down).  We have fun with this sort of thing at Sterling
> Hill...
> 
>         Cheers-    Earl
> 
> Using Your Ultraviolet Lamp:  Some Suggested Activities
> 
> 
> Indoor Activities
> 
> A nighttime trip through your home with an ultraviolet lamp is guaranteed
to
> be an interesting experience.  Here are a few suggestions for things you
can
> try:
> 
> In the kitchen:
> 	Many foods and drinks fluoresce.  Milk, beer, and tonic water
> fluoresce, as do many soft drinks, but pure water does not.  Some
vegetables
> and fruits fluoresce.  Green peppers are interesting:  they fluoresce red,
> but only when freshly cut.  When dinner is served tonight, try turning out
> the lights and beaming an ultraviolet light on your food.  Do you still
want
> to eat it?
> 	Many glass, ceramic, and plastic items used in the kitchen
> fluoresce, but metallic items (silverware) do not.  If you have leaded
glass
> wine goblets, for example, examine them under a shortwave ultraviolet
> lamp-they fluoresce brilliant blue.  Ordinary glass will fluoresce weak
> yellowish green or not at all.  Your dinner plates may well fluoresce,
> especially where they are chipped to expose the unglazed porcelain
beneath.
> 	For a particularly disturbing experience, beam your ultraviolet lamp
> on the wall above your stove.  Notice all those disgusting stains?  If you
> are like most people, your kitchen is considerably less clean than you
think
> it is.  Daylight reveals little, but ultraviolet light may reveal far more
> than you'd like.
> 
> In the bathroom:
> 	As in the kitchen, you should find many items that fluoresce in your
> bathroom.  Among the likely possibilities:  your toothbrush, shampoo
bottles
> (and the shampoo within), soap, and aspirin.
> 	For those who definitely are not faint of heart, try beaming your
> ultraviolet light in the bathtub, around the toilet, and around the
bathroom
> sink.  We leave the details to you . . .
> 
> In the living room:
> 	Try examining the fabric on your chairs and couch and the fibers of
> your living-room rug under ultraviolet light.  You may find, for example,
> that some of the fibers in your rug glow brightly, perhaps in more than
one
> color, whereas others do not glow at all.  Specialists in criminal
forensics
> routinely inspect crime scenes with ultraviolet light, in part to look for
> just such fluorescent fibers, which sometimes can link a transported
victim
> to the very room where the crime took place.
> 
> In the bedroom:
> 	Most or all of your white undergarments should glow brilliant
> blue-white under longwave ultraviolet light.  This is no accident, for
> nearly all laundry detergents sold in the U.S. contain an optical
brightener
> that is designed to fluoresce in sunlight.  The bright blue-white
> fluorescence offsets the yellowish tone of incompletely cleaned or old
cloth
> and makes your clothes appear whiter-and hence cleaner-than they really
are.
> Similarly, most typing and copy paper is treated with an optical
brightener
> to increase its apparent whiteness.
> 	Other clothes in your closet probably will fluoresce also.  Pay
> particular attention to those that fluoresce in a color different from
their
> color in daylight.  You may find a blue sweater that fluoresces red, or a
> green sweatshirt that fluoresces blue.
> 
> In the basement:
> 	If you live in a humid climate and have stored galvanized nails,
> screws, or fencing for years, you may find that these items fluoresce blue
> under shortwave ultraviolet light.  The fluorescence arises from
> hydrozincite, an alteration product of the zinc coating that prevents
these
> items from rusting.
> 
> In the garage:
> [automotive fluids.develop this later..]
> 
> Outdoor Activities
> 
> What you find in the way of fluorescence outdoors depends largely on where
> you live.  Here are a few likely possibilities:
> 
> Wood:  The wood of many trees and shrubs fluoresces, though usually not
> brightly.  Among the brightest of the fluorescing woods are sumac, black
> locust, and mesquite [check the latter!!  Can't remember].  Also check
> leaves; these fluoresce when dry (autumn, winter)
> 
> Lichens:  Lichens are the low-growing, scaly plants that grow in small,
> circular to lobate patches on rocks.  Many species of lichen fluoresce,
some
> of them quite brightly.
> 
> Fungi:  Some mushrooms fluoresce, as do many molds.  The fluorescence of
> molds can be a most useful property:  food inspectors, for example,
> routinely use ultraviolet lamps to detect the aflatoxin mold, which is
> deadly to humans and commonly infests peanuts.
> 
> Shells:  The calcium carbonate in sea shells and in coral fluoresces, most
> often in hues of white, yellow, cream, pale orange, or pale blue, and
rarely
> red.  Shells pulverized into sand by the sea are a common component of
beach
> sand worldwide.  Some sands, such as those along many tropical beaches,
are
> composed mostly of shells and coral and are strongly fluorescent.  Other
> sands, such as those along much of the eastern seaboard of the United
> States, are composed mostly of nonfluorescent quartz, but even in these
the
> tiny grains of shells can instantly be detected at night with a longwave
> ultraviolet lamp.
> 
> Minerals:
> The ultimate in outdoor recreation with an ultraviolet lamp is prospecting
> for valuable mineral deposits.  Many deposits were found in this way,
> particularly deposits of scheelite during the tungsten boom of the 1930s
and
> 1940s, and of uranium during the uranium boom of the 1960s and 1970s.
Even
> if you don't find a mineral deposit, continued searching of rocky areas
with
> an ultraviolet lamp will almost certainly yield interesting specimens that
> you may wish to take home.
> Opportunities abound even in areas where little or no rock is exposed.
> Exciting discoveries may await you in the crushed rock used for gravel
> driveways and landscape decoration, in the rock facing of downtown
> buildings, in the rip-rap along drainage culverts and dams, and even in
the
> aggregate used in concrete.  You can also examine sand along stream
valleys
> and beaches near the seashore, where you are likely to find tiny,
> yellow-fluorescing grains of zircon, a zirconium silicate mineral
widespread
> in many igneous and metamorphic rocks, and in the sediments derived from
> them.
> 
> Plants:
> [chlorophyll; discuss later.  Dried leaves in autumn or winter, ditto]
> 
> Animals:
> Scorpions, glowworms, people, cats (Hi Gary!), etc. [Warn again about SW
UV;
> DO NOT point at animals.  Use LW only]
> 
> Antlers, bones:
> [Deer bones and antlers in eastern U.S. often fluoresce pink to pale blue.
> Don't know why...]
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> --
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