Thread by @MuseumofRA

A is for Artes Radium Cream. Launched in London in 1931 it was advertised as a revolutionary home beauty treatment: "the active properties in this scientific preparation stimulate the skin cells, clearing the complexion and refining the texture of the skin in a wonderful way."

This advert is from Tatler and is dated June 1932. "It was first thought of by Madame Maria Hornes .... while observing the wonderful rejuvenating action on the skin's texture of Radium Springs baths at a continental spa."

Day 2 of my Radium A-Z challenge. B is for Blandford's Radium Hair Food Tonic and Restorer. I will post more about this brilliant product throughout the day #HalfLivesBook

Blandford's Radium Hair Food Tonic and Restorer was launched in around 1909. Aimed chiefly at men it sold in places such as Harrods for 3s and 6p for a regular-sized bottle. Here's a listing for it in the Harrods General Catalogue of 1910.

Frank Brighten, the manufacturer of Blandford's Hair Tonic, owned the trademark to the word 'Radium' at least in reference to 'preparations for the skin, hair, teeth, perfume and perfume soap.'

And in 1915 Brighten took the Mayfair beauty salon owner Helen Cavendish to court for infringement of the trademark as she was selling the Helen Cavendish Radium Beautifier, Helen Cavendish Radium Cream & Helen Cavendish Radium Hair Restorer.

Whilst the judge ruled in Cavendishs' favour she changed the name of her range of products to Caradium. These 'scientific radium preparations' for the hair and face were on sale until at least the 1960s.

In the A-Z of radium, C is for clock (or cocktails if you check out my Instagram - link in bio).

The Radium Clock was devised by Robert John Strutt, who had written one of the first books on radioactivity and found traces of radium in the spa waters of Bath.

The Radium Clock was designed to demonstrate perpetual motion and was described by Frederick Soddy as: 'the nearest approach to an actual perpetual motion machine ever yet constructed."

W H Martindale who manufactured and distributed all sorts of things including instruments and chemicals made one of the clocks: "Empires may come, and empires may go, but my little clock will keep time in two-minute beats as long as the radium lasts.”

A version of the clock was shipped into New York onboard the RMS Campania at the request of George B Selden of Rochester. In charge of the Purser, the passengers on board were reported only to know it was there because they heard it ticking.

And smaller versions of the clock, primarily intended for those studying radioactivity rather than for the general public, were made available for Christmas 1905 and could be bought from Messrs Scott in the Burlington Arcade, Piccadilly, London.

Day 4 of the A-Z of radium. May I present Degnen's Radio-Active lenses? #WeirdHistory #histmed #histsci #medhist #medicalhistorian

These were introduced around 1921 by the Radium Appliance Company of Los Angeles. Another item in their portfolio of spicy goodies was the Radio-Active Solar Pad orau.org/PTP/collection…

The glasses themselves were wire-rimmed and not that unusual. However, the lenses were coated with an opaque greenish film with a small clear dot at the centre of each. They were available in three strengths- single (X), double (XX) and triple (XXX).

Sold as an aid to improving your eyesight as well as relieving headaches caused by eyestrain the manufacturer's suggested wearing the glasses 5-10 minutes twice a day to stimulate the nerves, muscles and tissues of the eyes 'by supplying waves of energy and kinetic vibration'

After a quick break the A-Z of radium is back with E is for Eben Byers #WeirdHistory #histmed #histsci #medhist #medicalhistorian

Byers was a rich man with an eye for the ladies and past success as an amateur golfer. But in 1927 he badly hurt his arm and was prescribed Radithor - a triple distilled radium water by a doctor.

The manufacturers of Radithor claimed it would pretty much cure anything. Whilst the recommended dose was a bottle a day Byers took three.

Fast forward a few years and Byers had begun to lose weight, suffers from terrible headaches and toothaches. The diagnosis: radiation poisoning. Byers dies in 1932 and the company is served a cease and desist.

F is for Floros Radioactive Cream

#beautyhistory #makeuphistory #weirdhistory #beauty #cosmetichistory #vintage #makeuppackaging #makeupcollection #makeupcollector #glamour #dangerousbeauty #radiantbeauty #WeirdHistory #histmed #histsci #medhist #medicalhistorian

Floros lamps seem to have been created by Helene Pessl in Vienna in 1935. These were portable ‘lamps’ which when plugged into the mains gave a warming ‘blue light’ facial massage.

Several companies in the UK offered Floros Lamps in the mid to late 1930s. But Beauty Lamps, 91 Regent Street, London, seem to be the only ones that also supplied Floros Radioactive Cream which “contains a radioactive salt”

The “radioactive essence” promised to help carry the cream – alongside the blue ray & heat of the lamp – deep into the skin and improve on the original Floros treatment. By the 1950s it seems that the radioactivity had been dropped and just normal scented cream was recommended.

For the background on Blue light technology in cosmetic treatments I highly recommend a visit to @cosmetics_skin piece on it cosmeticsandskin.com/cdc/red-blue.p…

G is for Golf

In 1904 it was suggested at the MIT Sunshine Dinner (for more on that see my book!) that golf balls could be painted with glow in the dark radium paint. The main benefit of this would be that it would allow you to play golf at night.

Later suggestions for utilising radium in golf was that adding a small amount to the ball would help players find it in the rough - as long as they had a handy Geiger counter of course!

But my favourite is The Blue Radio golf ball which has a 'radioactive centre.' This meant that when the ball is hit "the radium salts in the plastic centre start a wave of momentum... the ball literally is alive and the released energy actually fights to free itself."

In the A-Z of radium, H is for #HalfLivesBook and it's giveaway time! To enter, follow @lucyjanesantos_ and/or @MuseumofRA RT this tweet & comment whether you want to win the UK or the USA version of #HalfLivesBook
Entries close midnight BST 6 July
UK and USA only.

I is for Ingersoll. The Ingersoll watch company was set up by the Ingersoll brothers in New York City. Their plan was to offer excellent watches to the general public at affordable prices.

They created Radiolite which glowed! They acquired enough radium from Colorado and Utah to produce around half a million watches a year. As the company grew they made new advances – the smallest pocket watch, the first military watch & the first character watch (Mickey Mouse).

This was first produced in 1934 but in 1948, to celebrate Mickey Mouse's 20th birthday, they produced a series of watches with different characters. The Deluxe version came with a watch and a matching pen. You could also choose between ‘regular’ or ‘radium’ glow in the dark hands

J is for Jáchymov, a town in the Czech Republic. Now a cluster of around 12 hotels the region has two natural resources - mines and water. The mine has been in operation since 1815 and over time silver, arsenic, zinc and uranium ore have been mined there.

Jáchymov was known as St Joachimstal until the 1950s and – thanks to its abundant uranium – was one of the major sources of radium until 1921. In fact, it was where Marie Curie sourced the material she used to discover radium in 1898.

In 1912 the Radium Palace Hotel opened with 300 rooms, 85 bathrooms, gardens, tennis courts, garages with living accommodation for chauffeurs, and spectacular leisure and dining facilities. It also an extensive range of radium treatments based on ideas of Mild Radium Therapy.

Today the Radium Palace is still there, still fabulous to look at and still giving radium treatments in their basement. One day when I am drunk, I will tell you about the mix up I had with their nude bathing policy.

In the A-Z of radium K is for Kemolite

Here's an earlier thread that features the link between Kemolite and a Norwich salon