William Baron's Radioactive Puzzle Jug


		A RADIOACTIVE PUZZLE JUG This jug was made by the famous Devon potter William Baron. It has the traditional scraffito message: "This Jug was made to try your skill Drink if you can, but do not spill". The maker did not realize that the Uranium glaze which he used to get the interesting orange finish is dangerously radioactive. At 200 counts per second it makes our Geiger Counter have hysterics!
	It is quite safe as we keep it in a cupboard and even a piece of paper will stop the alpha radiation. Nobody should be tempted to use any of this type of orange pottery. The danger lies in it getting chipped and someone accidentally ingesting a fragment. It could be harmless but it might not be.
William Baron was born in 1863 in Sidmouth, studied at Lambeth School of Art, then at Barnstaple School of Art, worked at Brannam's pottery for nine years, and in 1893 started his own pottery. In 1904 he opened his own shop in Barnstaple. He died in 1937 at the age of 73 so it was old age rather than radiation that carried him off.

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