"Zapped" bottles

[Maine Digger]

Over the weekend I saw a 'Rare Purple Coke' up for auction. This was not a straight sided bottle, rather one of the clear hobbleskirt produced in the 60s/70s - There was 7 bids on it - forgot what the $ was, but it was an obvious 'zapped' bottle[]

 

[BARQS19]

Interesting. Was there some way some of these bottles could actually turn these colors without the help of a device? I met a guy at the Las Vegas bottle show back in Feb. who collected nothing but colored contour Coca Cola bottles. Thought it was interesting though.

 

[BARQS19]

Norm, what was the item # for that bottle or do you remember? I saw a 1915 purple bottle on there but not the one you're talking about.

 

[Maine Digger]

I don't believe it was eBay, it was another site selling coke products. I was doing a search for the coke Soda Water bottle I picked up last weekend, and happened across the page in question. I haven't found it again yet, but will let you know when I do. Coke bottles DO NOT naturally turn to deep purple![8|] They have to be 'zapped' to attain that look. Even the 1915 hobbleskirt you refer to has been zapped. There's a lot of informative coke sites that tell buyers to beware of these bottles.[]

 

[BARQS19]

I did not know that. I will keep that in mind from now on. No more purple Coke bottles. How would you know (and have you ever seen it) if someone got a clear/aqua SS coke bottle and turned it amber? How could you tell the difference between a real amber SS coke and a "zapped" SS amber coke? I have seen a amber Dr. Pepper Thief bottle before. I've also seen a purple Dr. Pepper thief bottle as well. I knew those two were made up.

 

[strataman4]

Hello All,

I had a question about turning bottles artificially to amethyst color. Does anyone know if the UV light is short wavelength or long wavelength? I know this makes a huge difference in making a flourescent rock such as calcite to glow. I work in a microbiology laboratory and we have a UV light and wanted to try it sometime with a bottle. Also would you say it would take minutes or hours under artificial UV to make the bottle turn amethyst? I am just being the curious scientist

Thanks,

Strataman

 

[IRISH]

G'day strataman4, welcome to the forum.
I really don't know but I suspect both would do the job, may be an interesting experiment to find out [] .

 

[LaidBackJack]

There's no qualitative difference between using the sun, or a UV lamp, except the time involved. The sun can take years, a lamp takes a week or two. I routinely "zap" common bottles, in lots, because I noticed that they sell better at my yard sales & flea markets. Basically it turns $1 bottles into $2 bottles (or more) when you're dealing with the non-collector general public. I don't zap the goodies, unless I'm going to keep them, because I prefer color to clear for my displayed bottles. There's an infinite variety of shades of amethyst, and it's just fun to see what shade a particular bottle will turn. There is also, apparently, a technique which will turn some old clear glass a rose color. It involves placing the item inside a nuclear reactor & exposing it to gamma rays, according to my informant. Of course, how many people have access to a nuclear reactor? but I've seen the supposed results, and it's very beautiful, but of course any really rose-colored old glass is going to be rare as hen's teeth & automatically suspect if it represented a one-of-a-kind situation. The same guy showed me how to reverse the process, by simply putting the item in an oven & slowly heating it to 400* or so. This will return an artificially rose-tinted glass object to clear glass. As far as I know, sun tinted amethyst glass is irreversible. Problem is, if you did have a rose-colored bottle, would you want to risk sticking it in an oven to find out if it was fake?

 

[dpbottleman]

About 10-12 months ago, someone from the Georgia/Alabama area was zapping th 30-40's clear Dr Pepper bottles, and turning them amber and selling them for a couple of hundres of dollars, this was a ripoff. Dr Pepper never had amber bottles of any kind.

 

[GlassWorx]

I don't understand why people are upset by this? There's really no difference except in depth of the coloring. I sell heavy on ebay, though I don't colorize my old bottles, (I have a few in direct sun) This takes a time and patience. Bottles "zapped" by food plants are hit with a little more than UVA, I believe there's some gamma involved as their aim is to destroy e-coli, botulism and salmonella (which kills between 800-4200 people a year in the USA depending on who you listen to) I like the lighter tints, as the deep zapped ones just look like fakes to me. Like Wheatons Gone Wild or something.Between the years of 1880-1915, the majority of <i>clear</i> bottles<br>were made that way by the addition of manganese<br> (primarily, but sometimes mixed with or supplanted by selenium, depending on supply)<br>into the original glass batch.<br>The manganese in the glass turns <font color=purple><b>purple</b></font> when long term exposure to UVA oxidizes its ions.<br>When the manganese is added to the original glass batch, the 2000-2500F temperature pushes the ions into a reduced state.<br>Now <i>clear</i> glass isn't really clear either.<br>It's actually a balance of colors canceling each other out.<br>A normal batch of 1800's glass, would usually run the gamut of colors from blue to green,<br>due to iron and other impurities in the glass.<br>The manganese would <i>cancel this out</i> by throwing yellow, red and amethyst/purple into the mix.<br>It's not really clear glass, it just looks like it to human eyes.<br>It's interesting to note a lot of other mammals wouldn't see a clear bottle as clear.<br>This is also why some digital cameras <br>pick up an off colored tint in clear glass, when the light is right.<br>In 1915 the manganese supply to the good old USA was sort of TFU'd by World War One<br>as we got most of it from the Kaiser's home country of Germany.<br>Pretty much after that it was all selenium, until the 1930's<br> when it was discovered that it was even more cost effective to use straight arsenic<br>(not too mention more tasty, especially in those soda and food bottles)<br>Selenium changes for the same reasons, to yellows, browns and some neat off tints.<br>In closing, I'll tell you this last bit of interesting info.<br>If you slowly reheated a sun-colored bottle to around 1000 degrees, it would take the color right back out of it.<br>That's something I try not to do however.<br>I only have one bottle that ever gets close to flames, and it's protected by a thick coating of resin<br>(I mean axle-grease)<p>Rob Mooers, GlassWorx - Sanford, Maine