# Can irradiation be undone?



## houseman (Nov 27, 2006)

I have a milk bottle that is irradiated to the point that it doesn't match the other bottles in my collection and doesn't look right when displayed with the others. Does anyone out there know of a SAFE method to undo irradiation?
 I don't know if it's even possible, but I thought I'd ask some experts. This is a very rare local milk, so I don't want to try anything that could put the bottle itself at risk.
 Any ideas would be appreciated!


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## capsoda (Nov 27, 2006)

I have put soda {tempered} bottles in the oven and gotten the purple out of them. It stirs up the molicules when you heat them. Try it on a junk milk first.

 Put the clean dry bottlen in the oven. Turn the oven to its lowest temp and leave the bottle in for one hour. Use a flash light to see if it turned clear. If not close the door and wait 15 mins and then raise the heat too the next level for 1 hour and it should clear up. The highest I have ever had to go was 225 degrees.

 Let the bottle cool for a couple of hours before taking it out. *IF YOU DON"T LET IT COOL COMPLETELY IT WILL CRACK WHEN YOU TAKE IT OUT!!!* Make sure you let it cool for 2 hours at least.

 Like I said experment on a cheap milk bottle in good shape.


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## tazmainiendigger (Nov 27, 2006)

Warren I do the same thing with quartz xtals, You can turn amethyst to citrine and dark smokeys a light rootbeer color the temps are higher though. It is best to heat it in dry clean sand to prevent air shock. Like Warren said what ever you do DONT open the door till completely cooled or all will be gone (been there down that!)  ( You can also turn different matl's blue, yellow, green by packing them in pure dry cement powder..... ionization I believe is the process) O well rambling.... have fun! Taz


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## GuntherHess (Nov 27, 2006)

I have heard you can reverse the manganese purple color in glass using heat but I have never tried it. If you do some experiments let us know how they turn out, sounds interesting. See if you can reduce the level of purple or if it just totally turns it back clear. Most glass (with no cracks) should survive heating/cooling as long as you do it slow. I doubt you will get it hot enough to mess up the annealing.


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## Ye Olde Prospector (Nov 27, 2006)

Hi guys,

 I have a small druggist bottle I picked up for a buck that had been irradiated. I heated it slowly up to about 350 d. and back slowly but had no real effect on the color. Maybe type of glass ??? has something to do with reversing color. Like Taz I have played with Smokey Quartz and using sand changed it to lighter and even colorless. Some Amethyst changes to citrine color and some has turned to gray and greenish gray from different locations, Takes lot higher temps for mineral color changes though. Would like to have a ceramic oven to do more research, temp/time etc. on color changes in minerals but the ovens are pretty expensive. Most of my experiments were with a poormans version, a can of sand in my woodstove. Not a lot of control there. MAD scientist at work!!!

 Cliff


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## capsoda (Nov 27, 2006)

Mad scientist  [sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif]


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## bearswede (Nov 28, 2006)

We need more of you, Cliff!!

  Thanks for sharing, and don't stop tinkering...

  Ron


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## houseman (Nov 29, 2006)

Thanks for the responses guys. I had thought heat might be the trick, but I didn't know just how to go about doing it. I also wouldn't have thought to leave the bottle in the oven to cool for very long and probably would have lost it!
 I'll do some experiments on some less desireable bottles before I try this particular milk, but I'll get back to everyone on how it works out.


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