Unfortunately, these ladies suffered dire consequences from the paint, up to and including bone cancer and death. Their mouths were continuously exposed to radium, and they unavoidably ingested it as well. The women used their lips to moisten the paint brushes and shape them into a fine point. The health risk of repeated exposure to radium became public knowledge when a group of women who painted radium on watch and clock dials became severely ill over time. Who wants to remain ugly!’įortunately, radium’s glory days were soon over. The ad announces: ‘Science has created THO-RADIA to beautify women. Alfred Curie (not related to the inventors of radium), was prepared with thorium and radium, two elements supposed to erase wrinkles. Elixir of youth: this cream THO-RADIA, sold according to the formula of Dr. In the early days radium’s luminous quality was even thought to provide certain health and beauty benefits, including shiny hair. In fact, radium, the heaviest alkaline earth element, was used in products including toothpaste, cosmetics and even food.
Unlike today, in the early 20th century radioactive materials weren’t banned from everyday use. Not such a good fairy: This ad from 1916 for Ingersoll Radiolite clocks shows how before the severe risks of radium was understood, many children and adults slept with a radioactive source close to their heads at night. Luminous watches became a crucial tool in World War I, enabling soldiers on the battlefield to tell time in the dark. Luminescent paint was also used on aircraft cockpit switches, dials, and compasses, and for other industrial purposes. Luminescent paint was quickly adopted for watch dials.
A luminous paint was developed combining radium with zinc sulfide phosphor and other trace elements, thus solving the centuries-old problem of telling the time in darkness. Watchmakers and dial makers swiftly adopted radium as a solution for reading watches in the dark. Very sadly, Marie Curie’s creation eventually killed her as she died of radium poisoning. She could not have imagined how her invention changed the world, including the watch industry. Perhaps this piece was with her when she discovered radium in 1898. Marie Curie owned this beautiful Patek Philippe pendant watch which was given to her by the Geneva Société des Beaux-Arts in 1894, presumably to honor her extraordinary contribution to the world of physics. Radium has a half-life of over 1,600 years. Radium was officially named in 1899, after a French word derived from the Latin radius, meaning ray, a fitting name for a substance that continually emits energy in the form of light. Marie Curie and her husband Pierre discovered radium in 1898, and quickly recognized its radioactive and luminescent properties. Here, we’ll look at the evolution of luminescence in watches from the use of radium in the early 1900’s to today’s Super-LumiNova. To the relief of watchmakers and owners, that changed in the early 20 th century with the development of luminous substances that could be applied directly on to watch dials and hands.
The above Patek Philippe watch has a restored dial, the indexes most likely are painted with tritium which is often used in the restoration of vintage watches as its properties are closer to radium in terms of aesthetics. The process of combining radium with zinc sulphide was used on watches from 1902 when it was invented by W. Radium is not luminescent until it is mixed with zinc sulphide. In 1968, its use on watches was prohibited by law in the USA. Radium was commonly used on most Swiss watch and pocket watch dials from the early 1900s until the mid 1960s. Before and throughout the 19th century, there was no practical solution for reading the time in darkness, other than the use of a minute repeater which was the privilege of a few. Before the advent of electricity, trying to tell the time by reading a watch or a clock in the dark was impossible without lighting a candle.