――― Historical Content ―――
Rise in Popularity
Dial-painters working in a factory (National Institute of Standards and Technology)
Radium use spiked in the 1900's through commercial and military demand during World War I.
Commercial Products
After experts observed radium treating cancerous tumors, people wrongly assumed it could treat other diseases calling it a “miracle substance”.
Radium-laced products
Chocolate
(The Atlantic)
Water
(National Museum of
Nuclear Science and History)
Cosmetics
(Library of Congress (November 10, 1918))
Radium Based Paint
“Inventor William J. Hammer went to Paris... Hammer discovered that by mixing the radium with glue and zinc sulfide, he could make glow-in-the-dark paint. His discovery would soon be used by the U.S. Radium Corporation to manufacture wristwatches with radium-painted dials.”
(Atomic Heritage Foundation, 2017)
A US Radium ad for "Undark" paint
(The New York Times [New York City]. 28 Apr. 1928)
World War I
At the beginning of WWI, the United States Radium Corporation (USRC) gained government contracts to produce instruments for soldiers.
Radium Watch Advertisement
(Wikipedia, November 22, 1917)
WWI Radium Clock
(Connecticut in World War I)