File:Two black light fluorescent tubes.jpg

English: Two ultraviolet "black light" fluorescent tubes. The top one is a G.E. F15T8/BLB 18 inch 15 watt tube, used in standard plugin fixtures for special lighting effects, such as illuminating fluorescent posters. The bottom one is a F8T5/BLB 12 inch 8 watt tube, often used in portable battery-powered black light lamps for such uses as rock hunting, pet urine detection, and reading fluorescent security stamps. They emit long-wave (UVA) ultraviolet radiation, with a wavelength in the range 350 to 370 nm, which in general is not dangerous to the eyes or skin. These types of tubes, called in the lighting industry "blacklight blue", have an envelope with a deep blue-purple filtering material which filters out nearly all visible light from the inside, and passes ultraviolet. This filtering material was originally Wood's glass, a nickel oxide-doped glass, but because its physical characteristics made it unsuitable for light bulb envelopes, modern tubes use a filter coating on an ordinary glass tube.