John,
How can you tell if a shell was painted or not with a phosphorescent pigment
by looking at its picture? If I were to make a shell glow in the dark, I'd use
a phosphorescent ("glow-in-the-dark") nail polish, which are commonly sold.
Nail polishes dissolve in acetone. So, a simple test would be to clean a part
of the shell with acetone & then to see if that part glew less intensely than
the rest. You need to convince the owner to do this, though.

A.


On Mon Oct 25 11:32:28 1999,
"Cramer, John" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Mark says he sees no sign of paint.  There is no sign of paint from the
>pictures either.
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Aydin Orstan [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
>> Sent: Monday, October 25, 1999 7:58 AM
>> To:   [log in to unmask]
>> Subject:      Re: Phosphorescent Seashell?
>>
>> Paul,
>> The shell may be real, but it may have been painted with a phosphorescent
>> paint.
>>
>> A.
>