Wall Clock With Radium Dial

These paints were used on the dials of clocks and watches to make them glow in the dark.

Wall clock with radium dial.

And like united states radium corporation radium dial hired young women to paint the dials using the same lip dip paint approach as the women in new jersey and by another unaffiliated plant in waterbury connecticut that supplied the waterbury. Radium dials are watch clock and other instrument dials painted with radioluminescent paint containing radium 226 radium dial production peaked in the first decade of the 20th century as radiation poisoning was then unknown. During world war ii radium dials and gauges allowed pilots to fly at night without cockpit lights. The first such studios were open in new jersey newark illinois and in ottawa canada.

Luminous radium found a place in a dial painting studios where glowing paint was applied to instrument gauges clocks and wristwatches for the usrc united states radium company. Subsequently radium dials have largely been replaced by phosphorescent or occasionally tritium based light sources. In fact timepieces with radium dials were still made for years after but not in as large of numbers. Any dial made with radium after 1950 was marked with ra or r indicating the presence of radium paint on the dial.

After testing 30 watches kept in a typical room researchers. This radium dial was probably painted by a dialpainter that later may have suffered and or died as a result of having painted the numbers and hands on this and other watch dials. By the 1920 s and 1930 s some dialpainters and former dialpainters began to suffer from a variety of illnesses often crippling and frequently fatal as a result of. And we all know that such dials should pose little in the way of actual hazards as long as you don t make the mistake of opening up the watch and accidentally inhale a fragment of radium paint radium let s recall has a half life of about 1600 years so radium dial watches and clocks from the early part of the 20th century are still.

The bottom line watches and clocks made with radium are considered. When word spread about radium many consumers refused to purchase these clocks and watches anymore. According to a five year study carried out by research teams at the university of northampton and kingston university and funded by unesco the international union of geological sciences and the international geoscience programme antique radium dialed watches could be a legitimate health hazard for their owners.