The Rules Written in Radium

Transcript

1. 01

   Before the mid to late 1920s, dial painters used their lips to point brushes.

2. 02

   After 1898, radium moved from discovery into medicine, paint, cocktails, cosmetics.

3. 03

   Radiation had medical uses, but its dangers were not fully understood.

4. 04

   In 1913, radium-226 and zinc sulfide made paint glow continuously.

5. 05

   World War I turned that glow into military dials, signs, and cockpit instruments.

6. 06

   By 1917, Radium Luminous Materials Company's military-dial complex in Orange, New Jersey, had several buildings.

7. 07

   Radium dial painters were primarily women, working in rows beneath warm factory lamps.

8. 08

   In 1920, U.S. production totaled about 1.1 ounces (32.5 grams) of radium.

9. 09

   The National Bureau of Standards performed more than 1,400 calibrations in 1920 to measure output.

10. 10

    Rising production strained measurement facilities; the extraction plant proved unsuitable for small electroscope assays.

11. 11

    In August 1920, Elizabeth joined Radium Luminous Materials Company's electroscope lab for Bureau Radium Section work.

12. 12

    Elizabeth Hughes was a laboratory assistant in the National Bureau of Standards Radium Section.

13. 13

    The Radium Section measured small quantities with electroscopes.

14. 14

    In January 1923, written suspicion linked radium work to occupational disease.

15. 15

    Jaw osteomyelitis in a young luminous-dial painter was first publicly reported in 1923.

16. 16

    A Harvard report linked radium exposure with blood changes and jaw necrosis.

17. 17

    Complaints and lawsuits spread in 1923, but most dial painters received no compensation.

18. 18

    In June 1928, Grace Fryer joined four women in a settlement.

19. 19

    Five women received $10,000 and a $600 annuity.

20. 20

    A later study of dial painters helped establish radionuclide intake limits for workers and public.

21. 21

    Their tragedy also influenced industrial precautions used during the Manhattan Project.

22. 22

    Today, the surviving record identifies 3,276 radium dial painters, handlers.

23. 23

    The record leaves unanswered questions.

Sources

• Radium dial workers: back to the future - PMCpmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.govsecondary
• Introduction - Radium: Topics in Chronicling America - Research Guides at Library of Congressguides.loc.govsecondary
• Radium traffic: radiation, science and spiritualism in early twentieth-century Japan - PMCpmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.govsecondary
• The National Bureau of Standards and the Radium Dial Painters - PMCpmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.govsecondary
• The Radium Girls at the National Archives – The Text Messagetext-message.blogs.archives.govsecondary