![]() To keep the brush tips sharp, management instructed the women to lick the brushes, causing them to ingest large quantities of the radioactive paint. Each painter applied the radium paint using a small camel hair brush, which had to be re-pointed every few strokes. ![]() In fact, they were deliberately misled to believe that the paint they were using was completely safe. However, what at first seemed to be a great opportunity soon turned out to be deadly.Įven though the danger of radium poisoning was well known by the factory managers, the women employed to work with the glowing paint were not informed about it. This caused a new influx of staff at the radium factories, who consisted of mostly teenagers and young women, as their hands were smaller and therefore better suited to the minute detail needed to paint the watch dials. After the US entered the war in 1917, the military entered into a contract with the Radium Luminous Materials Corporation to produce glowing watches for their soldiers. ![]() Radium factories were seen as a particularly glamorous option, as the glowing paint was fun to work with and the positions were very well paid. With the onset of the First World War, many women took up work in factories. ![]() During the 1910s, glow in the dark products took the public by storm, with glowing clocks and watch dials becoming extremely popular. The discovery of radium in 1898 by Marie Curie was followed by a craze for all things radium as people rushed to find commercial applications for this new and exciting element. ![]()
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