Colored glass to clear?

[attackpoints]

Okay, this is a bit odd. I flew with my Tinymight and a stem in my carry on, and the stem that was previously pink has turned completely clear. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the stem before, but it's the similar to the stem seen with my Tetra P80 in the 2nd pic.

https://imgur.com/a/1wpHOkZ

I'm a bit stumped at how this could have happened. Maybe the scanner when my bag was going through?

My 2 questions are this:
1. How?
2. Is this still safe to use?

 

[strech]

1. Magical space rays

2.Why wouldn't it be? Magical space rays are all natural and organic. Anything they touch become energized with space vibes.

 

[attackpoints]

1. Magical space rays

2.Why wouldn't it be? Magical space rays are all natural and organic. Anything they touch become energized with space vibes.

I feel insane already man, I know it sounds nuts I had to go back through my messages to when I ordered just to confirm it was DEFINITELY purple/pink.

As for the safety I'm not super concerned, I'm using the other stem I brought. Went through the same scanner

 

[Shit Snacks]

Haha Phineas stems?? He had the pink color which looks quite clear depending on the lighting honestly, and the purple color which was deeper more noticeable for sure... I have both although I don't see how it could change color as they are not even fumed I don't think?? Totally beyond bizarre

 

[Radwin Bodnic]

That's interesting !
The color in glass is obtained by mixing selected metallic oxydes into the glass.
Your carry on have passed under a significant amount of x-rays that have interacted with these oxydes.

I googled "colored glass + x rays" and some results partially answers your question : here and here.

Edit :
I did a few more researches.
when making glass, the rose color is obtained by adding Gold(III) oxyde. It is easily destroyed into gold and oxygen either by temperature (@ 298°C) or light exposure (says Wikipedia in other language than English).
It seems that nowadays most American airports have scanners that use optical coherence tomopgraphy. No more x-rays. Although it is not visible light, both uses light at different frequencies to see through objects. They are known to destroy metallic oxydes (exposed camera film are known to be potentially erasable by those scanners)
Your stem might have been over exposed and the gold oxyde that gave it its color separated into oxygen and gold.

 

[attackpoints]

Haha Phineas stems?? He had the pink color which looks quite clear depending on the lighting honestly, and the purple color which was deeper more noticeable for sure... I have both although I don't see how it could change color as they are not even fumed I don't think?? Totally beyond bizarre

Yep, a phineas stem! I really had no idea something like this could happen

That's interesting !
The color in glass is obtained by mixing selected metallic oxydes into the glass.
Your carry on have passed under a significant amount of x-rays that have interacted with these oxydes.

I googled "colored glass + x rays" and some results partially answers your question : here and here.

Edit :
I did a few more researches.
when making glass, the rose color is obtained by adding Gold(III) oxyde. It is easily destroyed into gold and oxygen either by temperature (@ 298°C) or light exposure (says Wikipedia in other language than English).
It seems that nowadays most American airports have scanners that use optical coherence tomopgraphy. No more x-rays. Although it is not visible light, both uses light at different frequencies to see through objects. They are known to destroy metallic oxydes (exposed camera film are known to be potentially erasable by those scanners)
Your stem might have been over exposed and the gold oxyde that gave it its color separated into oxygen and gold.

Thank you!! That explains it. No more fumed glass on planes.

 

[Shit Snacks]

Oddly enough I actually had my own purple glass Phineas stem with me and a TM on a plane a year ago so glad it stayed purple!

 

[Cheebsy]

Surely, with all the glass that flies around the world, we would already know if that was a risk... Wouldn't we? There was a quick phase where people were ordering fumed sake bottle bubblers from China, they can't all have come by boat... Is passenger luggage scanned differently to freight I wonder?

What an interesting subject!

Have any resident glass blowers seen this before? @davesmith @GoodVibesBoro @Oregonglassblower you guys must have sent fumed pieces via air...

 

[Radwin Bodnic]

Surely, with all the glass that flies around the world, we would already know if that was a risk... Wouldn't we? There was a quick phase where people were ordering fumed sake bottle bubblers from China, they can't all have come by boat... Is passenger luggage scanned differently to freight I wonder?

What an interesting subject!

Have any resident glass blowers seen this before? @davesmith @GoodVibesBoro @Oregonglassblower you guys must have sent fumed pieces via air...

You are right they are the ones to call here.
I don't think the stem we are talking here is fumed. I do think it is mass colored by adding metallic oxydes into the glass.

Oddly enough I actually had my own purple glass Phineas stem with me and a TM on a plane a year ago so glad it stayed purple!

As you said before the rose Phineas stem is really clear. There might not be a lot of Gold(III) oxyde inside.
The purple is a lot more colored : it has probably a higher concentration of oxydes into the glass.

Either the oxyde that gives the purple color is resistant to scanner's light exposure. (Gold(III) oxyde seem to be really fragile.)
Either the oxyde concentration in the purple glass is too high to be destroyed by the intensity / time of a scan.

Edit :
I again searched a bit further.
Purple glass is made by incorporating Manganèse Dioxyde and while Wikipedia does not talk about its sensitivity to light, it is physically and chemically more resistant (by a lot) than Gold(III) Oxyde. Maybe it can't be affected by the scanners rays…

 

[GoldenBud]

Yep, a phineas stem! I really had no idea something like this could happen


Thank you!! That explains it. No more fumed glass on planes.

Breaking Bad Season 1

 

[Cheebsy]

AFAIK The majority of glass colours, especially the really special ones, are made in the US, the rest are made in Asia. There aren't many coloured borosilicate manufacturers. All that stock needs to travel the world in one way or another and I find it impossible to believe such sensitive glass exists is the mainstream. A large amount of glass colours change when they are being worked depending on the temperature and the chemistry of the flame, some can loose allot of thier pigment if the artist isn't careful but I would imagine the flame is a more harmful atmosphere than an airport scanner!

 

[GoldenBud]

let's talk about Red (Pink is closer to Red) energy vs Purple

E=hf
E=Energy

"Violet light has a wavelength of ~400 nm, and a frequency of ~7.5*10^14 Hz. Red light has a wavelength of ~700 nm, and a frequency of ~4.3*10^14 Hz."
frequency=f

h is a constant.
so if you fill E=hf for red vs purple you see that Energy for purple is higher than Red... maybe that's why? I really dunno how it happened but maybe it's related to Energy...

The EM spectrum

 

[attackpoints]

AFAIK The majority of glass colours, especially the really special ones, are made in the US, the rest are made in Asia. There aren't many coloured borosilicate manufacturers. All that stock needs to travel the world in one way or another and I find it impossible to believe such sensitive glass exists is the mainstream. A large amount of glass colours change when they are being worked depending on the temperature and the chemistry of the flame, some can loose allot of thier pigment if the artist isn't careful but I would imagine the flame is a more harmful atmosphere than an airport scanner!

I would have thought the same until this experience lol but going through the airport scanner was the only thing out of ordinary that would have happened to this stem and I don't want to recreate this experiment with my other one.

Oddly enough I actually had my own purple glass Phineas stem with me and a TM on a plane a year ago so glad it stayed purple!

I'm choosing to believe that the scanner was malfunctioning in some way. I'm willing to bet that it's typically safe for glass otherwise and I just got unlucky with the combination of intensity and length of time of the scan, and material.

 

[davesmith]

Ive never come across that but its pretty intetesting. China pink is very light as the golds expensive but its bizzare it would disappear completely. I’ll be flying with a rod of china pink everywhere from now on

 

[Cheebsy]

Thanks for your input @davesmith