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Very interesting! I don't have a Geiger counter, so I won't be able to check your theory, but it sounds like this type of glass is known for being used to join Pyrex to soda-lime glass. That all makes a lot of sense, and we have probably figured out that this thing was indeed rebuilt with a soft glass neck and replacement gun.
That would seem to indicate that the rebuild was not done when the tube was first made (to correct some mfg flaw), but at some later point. I would guess that if they had rebuilt it when it was made, they probably would have been capable of putting a Pyrex neck on the Pyrex tube. A few years later, when Pyrex tubes were no longer made, a rebuild like this would have made more sense.
With the bad tube that came with my Westminster, I actually tried to get a rebuild like this done. Clinton agreed to rebuild the tube if I could get a soft glass neck joined to the funnel of my Pyrex tube. I got the custom glass piece to join Pyrex and soft glass from an outfit in New Jersey, and got a glassblower here in California to agree to join it, but unfortunately, the glassblower here was not successful, so I abandoned the plan. Seems like it was a good plan, but I didn't have the right glassblower. Anyway, I'm glad to have this 20BP4 now.
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