![]() Hammer went on to combine his radium salt with glue and a compound called zinc sulfide which glowed in the presence of radiation. Radioactivity was somewhat new to science, so its properties and dangers were not well understood but the radium’s slight blue-green glow and natural warmth indicated that it was clearly a fascinating material. The famous scientists Pierre and Marie Curie had provided him with some samples of their radium salt crystals. Hammer left Paris with a curious souvenir. In 1902, twenty years prior to Grace’s mysterious ailment, inventor William J. One dentist in particular took notice of the unusually high number of deteriorated jawbones among local women, and it took very little investigation to discover a common thread all of the women had been employed by the same watch-painting factory at one time or another. Her jawbone was honeycombed with small holes, in a random pattern reminiscent of moth-eaten fabric.Īs a series of doctors attempted to solve Grace’s mysterious ailment, similar cases began to appear throughout her hometown of New Jersey. Using a primitive X-ray machine, the physician discovered serious bone decay, the likes of which he had never seen. Her troubles were compounded when her jaw became swollen and inflamed, so she sought the assistance of a doctor in diagnosing the inexplicable symptoms. In 1922, a bank teller named Grace Fryer became concerned when her teeth began to loosen and fall out for no discernible reason. Radium dial by By Arma95 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0. Images: Waterbury Clock by By Magicpiano – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0. With thanks to The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women by Kate Moore. If you enjoyed this story, you may also want to read about child labor here. However she lost all her teeth and suffered from colon cancer and breast cancer. She had only worked as a dial painter at Waterbury Clock for a few months, which probably extended her life. ![]() In 2014, May Keane, the last of the radium girls, died in Middlebury, Conn., at 107. Waterbury Clock also wangled a change in Connecticut’s workmen’s compensation law, shortening the statute of limitations to three years from five. The New Jersey radium girls did win a settlement, but USRC managed to wriggle out of further liability. USRC argued in court that no other cases of radium poisoning existed. I have heard a number of rumors such as you have, but know nothing about them,“ wrote the commissioner. In 1927 the lawyer wrote to the workmen’s comp commission in Connecticut. She told the New Jersey lawyer to look into the Waterbury Clock Co. She had identified the occupational dangers of the Danbury hat factories, and she heard about the Waterbury girls. The company settled out of court, but Katharine died at the age of 30 after suffering excruciating pain.Ī Harvard professor named Alice Hamilton tried to help. Katherine later contracted radium poisoning and, with four other dial painters, sued USRC. She had worked as a dial painter in Orange, N.J., at the United States Radium Corporation (USRC). In 1920, Katherine Schaub had come to train the radium girls at the Connecticut watch studios, including the Waterbury Clock Co. She was also one of dozens who died from radium poisoning. ![]() She was one of hundreds of young immigrant women hired to paint luminous paint onto the popular new watch dials in Connecticut – in Waterbury, Bristol, Thomaston and New Haven – and in Orange, N.J., and in Ottawa, Ill. Her mouth rotted until she had a hole in her check. When a dentist pulled a tooth, part of her jaw came with it. She developed severe anemia, and her teeth hurt. In 1925, Frances Splettscher died of radium poisoning after an agonizing illness. ![]() They painted their dress buttons with it and their fingernails, and they painted rings on their fingers. The radium girls believed their supervisors. The company told them it would give them glowing health. The radium girls didn’t think radium carried any danger. The radium girls’ ailments mimicked a condition called phossy jaw ![]()
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