When Radium Was All the Rage

Are you a fan of the decaying atomic nucleus? Does the clicking of a Geiger make you giddy? Check out this fantastic archive of images, Radiation and the Popular Imagination, documenting America's obsession with radiation (starting in the late 1890s) and subsequent realization of its dangers.

As a child of the post-OSHA era, my own experience with radiation has been shielded by layers of nitrile gloves and plexiglass. But this collection of images clearly demonstrates that human-nuclear radiation interaction wasn't always so sterile and impersonal. Radioactive elements were used in everything from toothpaste to cocktails (see ad, lower right) to dinner plates to suppositories (?) to roulette balls. But this glowing stuff didn't just look groovy, radiation gave blind men sight and a visit to radioactive hot springs was therapy for the ill.

My mom used to wash plutonium-contaminated lab equipment to earn extra bucks while she was in college, and now I'm wondering if those dish gloves and protective shield were thick enough... Hey, maybe my bone marrow glows!

Here's an interesting article about how we plan to warn future (alien?) civilizations not to go digging around in our most illustrious nuclear waste dumps for the next 10,000 years. Anyone know how to say "radioactive death-ray" in Enceladian?

Suit up in your protective gear and take a listen to these ionizing yet non-carcinogenic tunes:

Pere Ubu performs their soundtrack to Roger Corman's film X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (real audio, from an archive of Irene Trudel's show)

X-Ray Spex "The Day the World Turned Day-Glo" (MP3)

Thanks to Ken and Tollfreedom!

Comments

[Lukas]

Radiation is still the rage out here in the West, at the Free Enterprise Radon Health Mine in Boulder, Montana, with free wireless Internet, even underground! I'll go there some day and listen to WFMU while being cured by radioactivity.

[Kendall]

This is pretty intriguing. I had no idea that people were so in love with radiation. Well, I guess they were in love with DDT for a while too. Drinking radioactive water sounds like lots of fun, and I wish I'd been around to see it.

[Anna Neale]

I am working with the Low Level Radiation Campaign who are about as well informed as anybody on the hangover a race can get after flirting with too much nuclear technology the night before. Have a look at my blog for the gritty day to day problems of living downstream of Sellafield.

[x-ray fluorescence]

Hi,
I had no idea that people were so in love with radiation.But drinking radioactive water sounds like lots of fun for me..