![]() ![]() The supervisor reassured the girls that they were perfectly safe. The company said the males were handling huge bundles of raw material while the girls were never exposed to more than a small amount. Their skin and clothes would glow when they got home from work. ![]() The men who worked for USRC wore lead aprons to protect themselves from the radiation, but the girls were given no protection. It was a practice for the girls to lick the tips of the brush to create a finer point. The girls were told the paint was safe to handle, so no precautions were taken while they handled and even ingested countless doses of radioactive poison. This paint was radium-infused, a new invention in 1917. The women were instructed to apply glowing paint to the faces of clocks, instrument gauges and wristwatches for the United States Radium Company (USRC). The pay was fantastic, and the work was easy. In 1917, these patriotic young women considered themselves lucky to find work. In addition to the new movie, a documentary was released in 2018 which focused on women who fell victim to radium poisoning in Illinois in the 1920s.ĭuring World War I, many women went to work in factories while the men went off to war. The movie focuses on the American Radium girls, and the trailer still looks intriguing. With the pending release of the new movie Radium Girls - set to release this year, but there is no specific date yet, we thought we would take a look at who the Radium girls were because they were in fact related to the watch industry. ![]()
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