The Radium Girls
SEASON 3 : EPISODE 44
NOVEMBER 6, 2024
Tonight’s story comes to us from the US in the 1920s and 30s. It’s one of the stories that actually inspired me to start the podcast in the first place, and one I think a lot of you will be familiar with. So I hope I do it justice, and more importantly treat the victims with the respect and grace they deserve.
This is the story of the Radium Girls.
Follow along on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube @agoodnightforamurder.
The bonus content on Patreon for this episode is another landmark story of women banning together to fight for workplace rights. I’ll be covering the 1888 story of the matchstick girls.
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ARTICLES
Marie Curie's Body Was So Radioactive She Was Buried In A Lead-Lined Coffin
Glowing graves: How the Radium Girls’ suffering helped advance workplace rights
The Radium Girls: An Illinois Tragedy
The Forgotten Story Of The Radium Girls, Whose Deaths Saved Thousands Of Workers' Lives
Radium Girls: Living Dead Women
New Jersey’s ‘Radium Girls’ and the NIST-Trained Scientist Who Came to Their Aid
United States Radium Corporation
United States Radium Corporation
U.S. RADIUM CORP., ORANGE, NJ, Cleanup Activities
14 Horrific Facts About The Women Forced To Get Radium Poisoning For Their Job
Skin glowing from radium, ‘ghost girls’ died for a greater cause
Phosphorus Glow in the Dark vs Radium Glow in the Dark
Luminous Dials, What Makes Them Glow, And How To Spot Their Differences
How does glow-in-the-dark stuff work?
Radium in vintage watches and health concerns
ARE RADIUM WATCH DIALS DANGEROUS?
The heartbreaking story of Waterburys all but forgotten radium girls
Deadly Glow: The Radium Dial Worker Tragedy
Waterbury’s shuttered Timexpo building to see new life with education-focused tenant
VICTORIAN SOCIETY TIP
50 most common jobs held by women 100 years ago
Vintage Infographics: Where Women Worked in 1920
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INTRO
Hello everyone, welcome to A Good Night for a Murder, a Victorian true crime podcast.
My name is Kim, and actually, tonight’s story comes to us from the US in the 1920s and 30s. It’s one of the stories that actually inspired me to start the podcast in the first place, and one I think a lot of you will be familiar with. So I hope I do it justice, and more importantly treat the victims with the respect and grace they deserve.
This is the story of the Radium Girls
But first, a Victorian society tip.
TIP
Many of you likely already know that if you found yourself transported back in time to the 1920s in the US, working at the radium plant would not be somewhere you’d want to be…
So, if we’re not going to get a job at the radium plant, what other work was available to women in the 1920s?
According to census data of the top 50 jobs that employed women in the US, if we’re looking at other factory work, one of the most available jobs was working in the cotton or other textile mills
Often women could bring their children along to work but not because there was on site daycare provided, but because they would put these children to work too
Workers often had breathing problems due to the fibers flying around in the air and it was easy to get a hand, hair, or clothing caught in the equipment
A step up from the cotton mill was the knitting mill where women could do skilled or semi-skilled work including transferring the tops of stockings onto circular knitting machines run by other women who would attach the feet of the stockings.
Similar but more lucrative work could be found at the silk mill
Silk worm farming was a thing in the US, and the silk had to be cleaned, separated into skeins, wound onto bobbins, twisted into yarn, and put on looms for weaving
Silk mills fell on especially hard times after the Great Depression though when cheaper synthetic fibers took over
Over at the cigar and tobacco factory, women worked in assembly lines inspecting tobacco leaves, rolling cigars, packing boxes, or applying labels
Technology advancements brought a boom in the printing, publishing, and engraving business, which led to an increase in catalog and mail order business, leading to more opportunities at the shoemaking, suit, coat, overall, collar, cuff and glove factories
These factories had more heavy machinery though and fire was a hazard
You may be familiar with the Triangle Shirtwaist fire of 1911 where 146 garment workers lost their lives in Greenwich Village in Manhattan…
Iron, steel and machinery business was booming producing everything from sewing machines to support all those garment factories, to typewriters, to railroad supplies, guns and ammunition, cars, airplanes and more
If none of that appeals to you, you can try getting a job at the candy factory!
Commercial candy production flourished in the 1920s and debuted a lot of favorites we still love today including Mound Bars, Chuckles, Gummi Bears, the Charleston Chew, Baby Ruth bars, Milky Way bars, Mr. Goodbar, Milk Duds, Heath Bars, and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
This work came with a lot of the same dangers and tedium as other factories but it probably smelled better…
Better than another option, the rubber factory, anyway
These were all still paid relatively low for the time though
Those looking for a step up could throw in for a number of newly created positions in the 1920s including typists, filing clerks, stenographers, and even some secretarial roles
However, the work was still monotonous and offered little opportunity for advancement
A women’s best opportunity for climbing the ladder was working in one of the many department stores that had cropped up with the introduction of mass produced goods
Some women could work their way up to become designers or buyers.
More competitive fields included writing, dancing, acting, and singing
With all of these options though, the top 5 careers that employed most women were farm laborers, domestic servants, teachers, stenographers and typists, and non-store clerks - which was like admin work
One thing I learned that I found a bit humorous while researching this episode is about the iconic 1920s telephone and switchboard operators
Originally, they thought they’d hire teenage boys as operators but they proved to be too unruly and unreliable, and they started offering the jobs to women instead
Good to know some things never change I guess…
ANNOUNCEMENTS
I have two Patreon welcomes to share this month!
Welcome to Michelle and Jennifer!
Thank you so much for supporting the podcast, I’m so glad you’re here!
I recently made some updates to the Patreon tiers this season where there are now two tiers that include additional content!
If you’ve listened for awhile you’ve hopefully heard me speak about the Housekeeper and Butler tier on Patreon
That is the highest level of membership at $5 a month and it’s the one that includes bonus content for each episode, plus a new series called a Good Night Snack
Keep your ears open and eyes on your regular podcast feed to hear episode previews for this new series!
As of late though, members in the $3 Lady’s Maid and Valet tier also have access to monthly bonus content!
Both tiers also include things like stickers, shoutouts and more so if that’s something you may be interested in, please visit my website at agoodnightforamurder.com where you can learn more about Patreon.
CONTENT WARNING
A Good Night for a Murder is a true crime podcast that does cover stories including death, violence, sexual assault, and other adult themes.
Please take care while listening.
EPISODE
We need to start out this episode with a little bit of a history lesson, and a science lesson…
The best place to begin is in the year 1898 when Marie Curie and her husband Paul Curie discovered the element radium
At the time, they were building upon the work of Henri Becquerel who discovered radioactivity through his experiments with another element, uranium,
Upon its discovery, radium was treated as an amazing, new cure-all
It was proclaimed a wonder drug and was prescribed in bottled water for everything from hay fever, to gout, to constipation
It was even powerful enough to shrink cancerous tumors
It was also touted as an untapped source of beauty and vitality, and was added to food, toothpaste, cosmetics and more
In 1906, an Austrian doctor who studied in Moscow named Dr. Sabin Arnold von Sochocky (von so-chalky), immigrated to the US
He practiced medicine for 10 years in New York then moved to New Jersey.
During the course of his work, Dr. von Sochocky invented a luminous paint formula that included radium.
It should be noted that the radium in the paint did not glow on its own, but when mixed the another substance, zinc sulphide, the zinc sulphide would glow in response to the radioactivity emitted by the radium
So long as the two were together, the paint would continuously glow
In 1915, Dr. von Sochocky along with Dr. George S. Willis and several other investors, founded the Radium Luminous Material Corporation
In 1916 they changed their name to the United States Radium Corporation, who I will refer to as USRC throughout the rest of this episode…
USRC operated carnotite ore mines in Colorado and Utah
They would extract the radium from this ore and use it to manufacture their special glowing paint that they branded as “Undark.”
During this time World War I was going on, and it was critical for soldiers to be able to know what time it was, not only during the daylight hours, but during the dark of night as well
Watches with ever luminous faces were life changing
As with most technologies pioneered for military use, the demand for these watches quickly expanded to civilian consumers, and the business of “Undark” was booming
USRC operated 3 plants during this time located in the cities of Newark, Jersey City, and Orange in New Jersey
The Orange location in particular employed nearly 300 workers, 70 of who were employed as dial painters
Dial painting was promoted as good work for women because of their small hands and light touch
And it was pretty good work by the days standards
Averaging $20 per week, it paid more than three times the average factory job, placing dial painters in the top 5% of female earners in the country at that time
Being a dial painter was a source of pride in ones’ community as the work was viewed as patriotic
Most girls were in their teens or early 20s and, once hired, would often refer their neighbors, cousins, and sisters to open positions.
The job entailed mixing their own paint by scooping a small amount of radium powder into a crucible, adding a dash of water and a gum arabic adhesive, then using a fine camel hair brush to carefully paint the numbers on to paper watch faces, some of which were only 3 and a half centimeters wide
To keep their brush to as fine a point as possible, the women were taught the “dip, lip, paint” routine, which meant dipping their brush in radium paint, then placing it between their lips to “point” the bristles, then paint
And they would do this for each number on the watch face, at the rate of 250 dials per day.
While it was certainly hard work, hunched over painting dials all day, there were other perks
Namely, the girls who worked as dial painters glowed
As the girls mixed the paint, the radium dust would… get… everywhere…
It would settle on their hair and clothing, resulting in a soft, ethereal appearance that was envied by the girls working at other factories
Dial painters would often wear their best dresses to work so when they went out dancing after their shift, they’d shimmer and glow in the dark
They’d even paint their nails and their teeth with the stuff
To see them walking together down the street glowing with an otherworldly presence earned them the nickname “ghost girls”
One of the dial painters employed at USRC in Orange, New Jersey in 1917 was 20 year old Amelia Maggia, who went by Mollie.
Mollie, who was one of seven girls in her family, would eventually refer 5 of her sisters to work with her at USRC
About three years in to her employment though, Mollie started having some health problems that forced her to leave the work
It started with a toothache
She went to the dentist who told her they had to pull the tooth, which they did
But then, it didn’t heal… and the tooth next to it became infected as well
This happened several times over, and each treatment seemed to make the problem worse
The open wounds in her mouth constantly oozed blood and pus
the smell was terrible
She also started to experience debilitating aches in her limbs
Her doctor told her she had rheumatism and told her to take aspirin, but the pain just increased until she was no longer able to walk
Mollie was only 24 years old at this point
It would get worse though…
The infections in her teeth spread to her jaw bone and deteriorated the soft tissues in her mouth to the point that her dentist was able to simply lift what was left of her jaw bone out of her face
She developed anemia from the bleeding until one day the weakened tissues in her jugular vein finally gave way and she bled out
Mollie Maggia died at the age of 24 on September 12, 1922
Around the same time Mollie passed away, another girl, named Grace Fryer, who had worked at USRC about the same length of time as Mollie, left the company for a new job as a bank teller
Shortly thereafter, Grace started having trouble with her teeth as well, plus pain in her jaw and feet, and clouded vision
Her doctor was alarmed to find serious bone decay in her mouth, but could not find a reason for it
Then, two other dial painters, Helen Quinlan, age 21, and Irene Rudolph, age 22, both died from similar symptoms
What we know now, that they did not know then, was that the girls were suffering from radiation poisoning
When the body absorbs radiation, it treats it the same as calcium, meaning it gets sucked in to our bones
Except instead of strengthening them like calcium would, the radium starts boring thousands of tiny holes in them
Words like "honeycombed" and "moth-eaten" is how doctors would later describe the bones of those afflicted
The radium stored in those bones would constantly emit radiation, gradually destroying bone marrow and blood cells
And since the girls were putting this stuff directly in their mouth as part of the “dip, lip, paint” routine, the first sign for many that something was wrong was that their teeth started to fall out
Once the problem teeth were removed, their bodies were already too weak to heal and it was a steady, painful descent from there
In addition to the crumbling teeth and jaw bones, the women suffered collapsed spines, painful, swollen joints, tumors, unexplained weight loss, extreme exhaustion, brutal hemorrhaging, pregnancy complications and worse
There is no cure or reversal of the effects of radiation poisoning
Now, even though I said that the medical and scientific community at large didn’t really understand the dangers of being exposed to radium, some of them - actually many of them - did actually understand…
The male lab technicians and scientists at USRC did take protective measures while working with radium, including wearing lead aprons and handling samples with ivory tipped tongs
Despite this, when reports began to roll in of their workers becoming ill, USRC pressured doctors to say the women were dying of syphilis, a sexually transmitted infection that was rather widespread at the time
They 100% did this to refuse responsibility for the women’s illness, and to shame and embarrass them in to silence
Even so, in March of 1924 the company conducted a covert internal investigation led by Harvard physician Cecil Drinker.
Three months later, Drinker presented his findings to USRC which were:
the radium was for sure making the dial painters sick,
every member of the workforce had usual blood specimens,
and the entire plant was contaminated with radiation
He also provided a long, but reasonable, list of safety precautions he recommended the company put in place immediately
Higher ups at USRC were pissed
They wholly rejected Drinker’s findings, buried the report, and submitted a fraudulent report to the labor department as evidence that they were in no way culpable for the women’s illnesses
A colleague of Drinker’s, Alice Hamilton, somehow discovered that the report USRC submitted to the labor department, was the not the report Drinker had written, and she encouraged him to publish his findings independently
Which he did
This really pissed USRC off and they threatened him up and down with legal action,
But Drinker published the report anyway
Around this time, in addition to several other women, USRC's chief chemist, Dr. Edwin E. Leman died, with the same symptoms all the women who died prior to him had
And now that a man had died, officials finally took notice
County physician of Newark, Dr. Harrison Martland, took up the cause to investigate the link between dial painting and radium poisoning
He was joined by none other than Dr. Sabin Arnold von Sochocky, the inventor of radium paint his self
At one time, Dr. von Sochocky had said, “the time will doubtless come when you will have in your own house a room lighted entirely by radium. The light, thrown off by radium paint on walls and ceiling, would in color and tone be like soft moonlight.”
But, in recent years, von Sochocky had to leave the company to tend to his failing health
He was suffering pain and stiffness in his hands, caused by necrosis due to handling radium, as well as jaw and teeth problems
The work of Martland, von Sochocky and another doctor, Dr. Joseph Knef, directly linked the use of radium paint to the debilitating, deadly symptoms experienced by the dial painters
What’s more, they also learned that once radium found its way in to the body: the damage was permanent, there was no way to get it out, and it would continue, unchecked, to wreak havoc on the body
The effects of the poison were slow though, taking on average about 5 years to build up before the effects could be noticed
And the company used this to its advantage, saying it couldn’t possibly be the radium - they’d been using the stuff for years and they’d always been fine!
The damage had started on day one though, so by the time symptoms started to crop up, the girls were pretty much doomed
Sometimes the first sign a girl would have that she would indeed fall victim to radiation poisoning, was when she would glimpse herself in the mirror at night, and noticed a faint glow of their skin or bones
Around this time Grace Fryer received a second opinion from another doctor confirming her health problems were linked to her previous employment as a dial painter,
Grace, who was the daughter of a union representative, came to the sad realization that she herself was already too far gone, but for the sake of all the other girls out there, she decided to sue USRC
By now it was 1926, and it would be two whole years before Grace could find a lawyer willing to take on the case against USRC
Unfortunately, the women were up against a statute of limitations which said that victims of occupational poisoning had to bring their legal cases within two years
Remember it took most victims a total of 5 years to recognize their symptoms as radium poisoning
In 1927 though, Grace did find a lawyer named Raymond Berry who was willing to accept the case
Four more women would join Grace in the suit including Edna Hussman, Katherine Schaub, and sisters Quinta McDonald and Albina Larice
Quinta and Albina were sisters of Mollie Maggia who lost her life back in 1922
Remember six of the seven Maggia sisters were employed by USRC as dial painters…
Berry filed the suit seeking $250,000 each in damages - that is about $4 million in today’s money
A total of 4 girls would be exhumed as part of part of the lawsuit investigation, including Mollie Maggia
An autopsy would find that every sample of bone and tissue showed extremely high levels of radioactivity,
However, these tests were hardly needed, as even 5 years after her death, Mollie Maggie still glowed
USRC responded by - doing nothing…
It was clear that their tactic was to drag the proceedings out in court so much, that the women would just die before they had a chance to have the case heard
And for USRC, it was a good tactic, because at this rate, that was exactly what was going to happen
By the time the case reached court in January of 1928, the women’s health had rapidly deteriorated
Two of the women were bed-ridden, including Grace who required a back brace to sit up, and all were too weak to even raise their arms to take the oath.
The press dubbed them the Radium Girls, and news of their story spread around the globe
Marie Curie herself said, “I would be only too happy to give any aid that I could,” adding, “there is absolutely no means of destroying the substance once it enters the human body.”
The next hearing would be three months later in April, but at this point all of the women were too sick to appear
Despite fears that the women would not survive to see the trial through coming to fruition, the judge decided to adjourn until September that same year
Walter Lippmann, the editor of the New York World newspaper, called the judges’ decision a “damnable travesty of justice…
He went on to say, “There is no possible excuse for such a delay. The women are dying. If ever a case called for prompt adjudication, it is the case of five crippled women who are fighting for a few miserable dollars to ease their last days on earth.”
In a later editorial, he wrote, “This is a heartless proceeding. It is unmanly, unjust and cruel. This is a case which calls not for fine-spun litigation but for simple, quick, direct justice.”
Things were bleak from the start, but as the weeks and months crept by, the desperate situation the women were in became even more painfully obvious
Days before the trial date, Berry and the Radium Girls and USRC agreed to allow U.S. District Court Judge William Clark to mediate an out-of-court settlement
It would eventually come to light that Judge William Clark was actually a stockholder in USRC
I’m not sure if they knew of this at the time, or if they found out later, but either way, the girls were on borrowed time as it was and they had to move forward
The settlement for each of the five “Radium Girls” was $10,000, and a $600 annuity paid at $12 per week for the rest of their lives, and all medical and legal expenses incurred would also be paid by the company
Today, that would amount to $177,000 and a $10,600 annuity paid at $200 per week…
In return, United States Radium Corporation would be absolved of all legal responsibility
During the trial, they had actually been forced to close down operations at the plant in Orange, New Jersey where the girls had worked
They ended up having to lease the building and sell off other properties before consolidating operations nearby in Manhattan
In November of that year, Dr. Sabin Arnold von Sochocky, died at the age of 45 at the hands of his very own invention
In the course of his treatment he had undergone 11 - 13 blood transfusions,
His cause of death was ruled as aplastic anemia, which is when your bone marrow can no longer make enough healthy blood cells for your body to function
The fortune he made from the invention of radium paint had been completely depleted by his lengthy medical treatments by the time of his death
Mollie Maggia’s sister Quinta died in December of 1929 at the age 29,
Next was Katherine Schaub in February of 1933 at the age of 31
That same year, Grace Fryer passed away in October at the age of 34.
Edna Hussman died in March of 1939 at the age of 37,
And the 3rd Maggia sister, Albina, would become the last survivor of the New Jersey Radium Girls before she passed away in November of 1946 at the age of 51
It is estimated that a total of 30 people died as a result of radium exposure from USRC
Now, notice how I said the “New Jersey Radium Girls”...
Our story is not over
Near identical events actually played out at two more locations in the United States…
One being in the city of Ottawa, Illinois
Another radium dial painting company was in operation there named Radium Dial Company, or RDC, for short
RDC was a division of the Standard Chemical Company based in the Marshall Field Annex building in Chicago
They opened their dial painting business about the same time as USRC was getting underway in 1917
In 1922, RDC moved in to a former highschool building at 1022 Columbus Street in Ottawa where they would produce around 4,000 dials a day
Around 1926 - 1927 is when RDC started having much of the same problems that USRC was having with their workers asking for compensation for their medical bills
RDC of course did everything they could not to pay them though
Workers in Illinois were unaware of the struggles in New Jersey until news of the lawsuit against USRC broke
Dial painter Catherine Wolfe Donohue remembered, "There were meetings at [our] plant that bordered on riots… "The chill of fear was so depressing that we could scarcely work."
But, surprise, surprise, RDC management claimed the substance causing all of the problems for the New Jersey dial painters was something called mesothorium, which they did not use… so… everything was fine… get back to work…
Management knew this was a bald-faced lie though, and introduced small changes hoping that would be enough to avoid any trouble
One change was replacing the brushes and lip-point technique with a fine tipped glass pen
However, the workers found it slowed their productivity, and since they were getting paid per the number of dials they painted, they quickly reverted to using the brushes and lip-point technique
Meanwhile medical tests conducted on employees showed rampant levels of radiation, though the results were never shared with the employees themselves
When the girls began to die, RDC went so far as to steal the girls bones so they could not be tested during an autopsy
In 1935, having become fully aware of the story of the New Jersey Radium Girls, the Illinois workers decided to sue
Catherine Wolfe Donohue, who I quoted before, led the charge along with 4 other women
By now though, the country was in the grip of the Great Depression, one of the worst economic downturns ever seen
Catherine and the other girls were shunned from their communities for trying to take down one of the few businesses left standing where one could earn a little bit of money
In 1937 and 1938 the women were represented pro bono by Leonard Grossman in front of the Illinois Industrial Commission
Against her doctor’s advice, Catherine used her last ounce of strength to give her testimony from her death bed
By this time, she’d lost all of her teeth as well as parts of her jaw
She constantly held a handkerchief to her mouth so absorb the blood and infection that oozed forth, and she had developed a grapefruit-sized tumor on her hip
At the time of her testimony however, RDC had actually closed it’s Ottawa plant and claimed the company was defunct,
so, it wasn’t their problem as there was no RDC to be held accountable
Fortunately, the Illinois Industrial Commission wasn’t having it and in spring of 1938 ruled in favor of the women
A few months later, Catherine died at the age of 35 leaving behind her husband, a 5 year old son, and 4 year old daughter
Catherine as well as another dial painter, Peg Looney, would be buried in lead-lined caskets to contain the radiation emanating from their bodies
The RDC would go on to appeal to the US Supreme court in October of 1939, but the court decided not to hear the case and upheld the ruling of the lower courts
I do not know why they had this many appeals, but, the case of the Illinois Radium Girls was won eight times over before Radium Dial Company was finally forced to pay up
Similar events were also playing out at a third location that never seems to get as much mention as those in New Jersey and Illinois
And that was at the Waterbury Clock Company in Waterbury, Connecticut
They employed women as dial painters the same as USRC and RDC using the lip-point method
In 1925, a worker named Frances Splettstocher died with symptoms of radium poisoning at the age of 21
This was around the same time that Grace Fryer had started making waves with her lawsuit in New Jersey
Like the other companies, Waterbury knew what was going on, but they weren’t about to tell their workforce that
Instead they told them, “Okay, just don’t put the stuff in your mouth anymore, and you’ll be fine.”
They officially discouraged the lip point technique and hired a doctor to look after the health of the girls
However, the doctor was a fraud paid by the company to assuage the girls fears
Despite repeatedly assuring them they were “fine,” the company would end up being on the hook for a total of $90,0000 in medical settlements between the years 1926 and 1936
The only thing this made them change though, was to reduce the number of years the women had to file a medical claim through worker’s comp from 5 years to 3 years
We already talked about how it could take an average of 5 years for symptoms of poisoning to surface
This was not true in all cases though - some girls were dead within a year or two of starting work at the Waterbury Clock Company
In 1929, twenty-two-year-old Mildred Cardow died from working with radium
The next year, Mary Damulis, also in her early twenties, died due to lip-pointing.
One girl, Mae Keane, actually credits the lip-pointing technique with saving her life though
Mae worked at Waterbury for a summer job at the age of 19 in 1925
She disliked the taste of the radium paint,
she said it tasted bitter and she refused to lip-point the brushes as they instructed
This, of course, slowed her productivity, for which she was fired
Though she escaped with her life, she did lose all of her teeth by the time she was in her late 30s
It was the mid 1930s before Waterbury officially banned lip-pointing in their factory
Due to rising employee concerns they agreed to raise the dial painters wages by 2 cents as a sort of hazard pay, I suppose
Ultimately exposure to radium at Waterbury would lead to over 30 deaths
During World War II, Waterbury Clock Company became the largest producer of fuse timers for precision defense products in the United States and built a new plant in Middlebury, CT
This is likely when they stopped using the original building on Cherry Street
I was unable to find out what it was used for in the interim, but about 1978, it was converted to low income apartments for the elderly, now called the Enterprise Apartments
Two decades later, Ross Mullner, an associate professor of public health at the University of Illinois was writing a book about the Radium Girls called “Deadly Glow" when it became apparent that no one seemed to know that the Enterprise Apartments on Cherry Street was in fact the old Waterbury Clock Company factory
This was alarming
He contacted the Department of Environmental Protection who was also not aware!
They thought, “Hey we better get out there…” and confirmed traces of radium in five apartments, as well as the offices and a leather clothier on the site
Some tenants had to be evacuated while their apartments were cleaned by crews in hazmat gear, but 2004 officially marked the end of clean up efforts
Today it’s still apartments - if you want to see them I included a link to their rental listings in the episode blog on my website
Eventually Waterbury Clock Company become Timex
In 2001 they would open The Timexpo Museum in Waterbury, Connecticut which was dedicated to the history of Timex Group and its predecessors, featuring exhibits dating to the founding of Waterbury Clock Company in 1854
However, several sources I consulted pointed out that their museum completely neglected to acknowledge the existence of the 30 plus women who died from radium poisoning while under their employ
A 2004 article on the matter stated:
Jim Katz, Timexs communication director, said the company has no comment on the matter.
"Whatever happened took place a long time before I got to Timex," Katz said
Despite Mr. Katz having nothing to say, I actually feel like they said a whole lot with that statement…!
Anyway the museum closed in 2015 due to low attendance - too bad so sad
What became of the Orange and Ottawa sites though?
While the plant in Orange did close during the trial, radium dial painting did go on well in to the 1960s at other locations
The demand for luminescent products increased again during World War II, and by 1944 USRC employed as many as 1,000 workers across mining, processing and application facilities spread across the US including Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania; Bernardsville, New Jersey; Whippany, New Jersey; North Hollywood, California and New York City
However, following the lawsuit, dial painters were instructed in proper safety precautions and provided with protective gear, after which there were no more deaths attributed to radium poisoning
it was that easy
In 1954 radium mining in Canada stopped and supplies became too expensive to support all of their locations
USRC consolidated its operations to Morristown, New Jersey and South Centre Township east of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania.
About 15 years later, USRC ceased radium processing all together spinning off those operations as Nuclear Radiation Development Corporation, LLC, based in Grand Island, New York.
The following year, a new facility at the Bloomsburg plant opened dedicated to manufacturing glow-in-the-dark exit and aircraft signs using Tritium - which is a substance with a relatively low source of beta radiation, that is too weak to penetrate the skin
Anyway, from here it split and merged and merged in split in to a bunch of different companies…
Back to our original question though: What happened to the Orange, New Jersey location that was poisoning everybody?
From Wikipedia:
The company processed about 1,000 pounds of ore daily while in operation, which was dumped on the site.
The radon and radiation resulting from the 1,600 tons of material on the abandoned factory resulted in the site's designation as a Superfund site by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in 1983.
From 1997 through 2005, the EPA remediated the site in a process that involved the excavation and off-site disposal of radium-contaminated material at the former plant site, and at 250 residential and commercial properties that had been contaminated in the intervening decades.
In 2009, the EPA wrapped up their long-running Superfund cleanup effort
Today, the exact building location appears to be a park that opened in 2019 with soccer and baseball fields, a walking path, and children’s playground
In Ottawa, Illinois, remember that the owners of Radium Dial Company tried to say they went out of business…
Which they did…
But, they reopened another company under the same management literally up the road called Luminous Processes, Inc., or LPI
The owner promised safer working conditions and banned lip-pointing but they literally learned nothing from the previous lawsuits
At LPI, radioactive waste was emptied into toilets; ventilation shafts were discharged near a children’s playground; employees worked in unvented rooms and wore smocks that they laundered at home, and left work covered in radioactive dust that they tracked all over town
The owners, again, lied to their employees insisting the lip-pointing was the problem and now that that was over, everyone would be fine
They were not fine, and more people did get sick and die
Numerous other businesses came and went in different parts of the building, including a meat-locker company operating out of the basement
One resident later stated, "I knew many families that bought meat there, and at least one person in every family later got cancer."
Somewhere between 1968 and 1978, federal inspectors finally shut the building down, detecting levels of radiation that were over 1,600 times what was considered to be safe
In 1985, what was then the Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety oversaw the demolition, packaging, and disposal of the radium-contaminated debris
Most of the debris was transported to a disposal site in Hanford, Washington, but local residents said otherwise
They said they saw radioactive rubble being used as fill all over town
They built playgrounds, schools, and municipal buildings out of it
In 1986, the U.S. Department of Energy conducted an aerial radiological survey and identified abnormal radiation levels at numerous locations throughout the city and surrounding areas.
They identified 14 areas with radium contamination that were later listed as EPA Superfund sites
Today, the clean up of 11 of the 14 sites has been completed
That’s right, they’re still working on it - they’re still trying to clean up this mess - it’s unbelievable
Ottawa seems to be the only location though that has not entirely tried to sweep their dark history under the rug, and that’s thanks to a girl named Madeline Piller who was an 8th grade student in Ottawa in 2006
She was shocked that hardly anyone knew what had happened in their own hometown, and lobbied to erect a Radium Girl memorial.
She worked with local unions to provide funds and elevate their cause to local politicians
Madeline's father, sculptor William Piller, was hired to create a life-size bronze statue of a Radium Girl, which was unveiled in 2011.
The memorial that depicts a 1920s dial painter stands in a plaza on the site of the former LPI factory
It is dedicated to the working women of the Radium Dial Company, Luminous Processes, Inc., and all dial painters who suffered
Thank you, Madeline!
Overall, the lawsuit, battles and publicity brought by the Radium Girls played a significant factor in the establishment of occupational disease labor law
In 1968, the Center for Human Radiobiology was established at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, IL
For decades after, over 2,000 surviving dial painters came to the center for bone marrow biopsies, blood tests, x-rays, and physical exams.
One source states: “They filled out questionnaires about their mental and physical health, took breathe tests, and had their body radium measured in the iron rooms beneath the earth. Autopsies were performed in some.
Some women were stricken early and then endured a half-life for decades. One girl was bedridden for 50 years. Many suffered significant bone changes and fractures; many lost their teeth. Many developed bone cancer, leukemia, and anemia. Some were given blood transfusions for years. Some developed severe osteoporosis with collapsed vertebrae requiring multiple operations. Many had amputations
The project ended in 1993 and the contribution of the women to medical science is immeasurable
Now, on to some important follow up questions
You may have heard that the Radium Girls are still glowing in their caskets to this day, and if you bring a Geiger counter, you can still detect radiation while standing over their graves
So, let’s break this down:
First, do they still glow?
When I first heard this story, I actually lost sleep thinking about this
But after my research for this episode, I now know that it is unlikely that the girls’ remains are still glowing
Even the glow from radium will cease a few years to a few decades later
This means that most who were contaminated enough to glow in the first place have likely stopped glowing
so I can sleep better at night now that I know that…
Just because they have stopped glowing though, does not mean they have stopped emitting radiation
One source explained, “The "half life" of a radioactive element is the length of time it takes for about 50% of a sample of any given size to decay – for radium, that's 1,602 years.”
I am not a chemist, but what I think this means, is that the level of radioactivity will decrease by half approximately every 1,600 years - and the girls have only been gone for about a hundred years - so, yes, they are still radioactive down there
I mentioned earlier that at least two dial painters from Ottawa, Peg Looney and Catherine Wolfe Donohue, were buried in lead lined caskets to contain their radiation
But, so far as the others… can you still detect radiation at their graves?
I have an answer for you on that as well.
About two years ago, a friend and I - shoutout to Katie - were able to borrow a legit Geiger counter - not one, like, purchased off Amazon - and we set out to find the graves of the Radium Girls in New Jersey
We were able to find the graves of Mollie Maggia and Grace Fryer, and we detected zero elevation of radiation at each site
And we really tried too
We swept the entire area to see if there was even a little bit of a rise in radiation anywhere around the grave
We tested the Geiger counter over and over again to see if it was functioning properly
And in the end we did not detect any level of radiation above normal at either of the graves
I linked to a few sources in the episode blog on my website of those who conducted their own investigations over the graves, and none of them ever got any elevated radiation readings either
So, it would likely be a different story if the graves were ever opened, but so far as detecting radiation at their grave site, I’m satisfied that has been debunked
Even Marie Curie, who died in 1934 and was exhumed in 1995 to be transferred to the national mausoleum reportedly only emitted small levels of alpha and beta contamination,
So after all this you may be curious how we make glow in the dark things today
The glow in the dark we see in children’s toys and other objects today is a phosphorus glow - not a radium glow
Remember radium on it’s own does not glow, it’s other substances that are reacting to the radiation emitted from radium - and their reaction is: to glow
Phosphorus glow works kind of the same way, except it doesn’t require exposed to radiation to glow, those substances can glow by reacting to light
Two common and completely safe substances that work that way are called Zinc Sulfide and Strontium Aluminate
If you hold those objects up to a light source to “charge up,” they’ll glow faintly for a few minutes to few hours before slowly fading
Super safe!
Now, there are some products out there, like high end watches, where the watch faces will still glow continuously, even if they’re not charged by light
These use a substance called tritium, which is what the company that was once USRC turned to using eventually
As mentioned before, tritium emits a different kind of radiation that is too weak to penetrate the skin, and has a much, much shorter half life than radium
There is another man-made substance called promethium that works much in the same way
In the cases of both substances, they’re perfectly safe to use and wear so long as you don’t literally eat your watch
Speaking of things to not do with watches, there were thousands of radium dial watches made, and if you happen to acquire a vintage watch made between the 1910s and 1960s, there is a good chance it’s a radium dial paint watch - even if it doesn’t glow anymore
Though many have been refaced with safer material, remember that just because the glow has faded, doesn’t mean it’s not still radioactive
There are a lot of articles and videos online to help you determine if a watch is indeed a radium dial, and I encourage you to do your own research to determine the best method of identification
I will tell you though that collectors and experts generally do not freak out over the handling of radium paint watches
According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, "radioactive antiques [including watches] are usually not a health risk as long as they are intact and in good condition."
From Wikipedia though: It is of the utmost importance that watches with radium dials should not be taken apart[5] without proper training, technique, and facilities.
My friends, that is everything I know, and now you know, about the Radium Girls
I really went down a lot of rabbit holes researching this important story and I hope I did them justice
I… did experience some interesting synchronicities while learning about the Radium Girls…
They’re more so personal stories so I’ll be sharing those on my social media channels, so if you don’t follow me there already, please do
If you head on over to Instagram, TikTok or YouTube @agoodnightforamurder to let me know what you think about this story and also see some photos of some of the products made with radium, girls themselves, and more.
You can also see the photos and source links for this episode on the episode blog on my website at agoodnightforamurder.com
While you’re on the website, you can sign up for the Good Night For a Murder newsletter.
Each month I send an episode round up, reveal of next month’s episodes and other goodies like extra Victorian society tips, book recommendations, and more
The bonus content for available on Patreon for this episode is another landmark story of women banning together to fight for workplace rights,
I’ll be covering the 1888 story of the matchstick girls.
Listen through the outro music to hear a short preview of this Patreon bonus content
To subscribe to Patreon and learn more about the podcast you can visit agoodnightforamurder.com.
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Thank you for listening,
And I will talk to you again soon
BONUS EPISODE
Hello everyone, welcome to A Good Night for a Murder, a Victorian true crime podcast.
This is a bonus content episode available exclusively for my Patreon members
Thank you so much for supporting the podcast!
My name is Kim, and to accompany episode 44 about the Radium Girls, I am going to tell you about another landmark story of women banning together to fight for workplace rights.
This is the story of the matchstick girls
ANNOUNCEMENTS
None
CONTENT WARNING
A Good Night for a Murder is a true crime podcast that does cover stories including death, violence, sexual assault, and other adult themes.
Please take care while listening.
EPISODE
In Britain in 1843, English Quakers, William Bryant and Francis May owned a business trading in “general merchandise,”
In 1850, the pair entered in to a business relationship with a Swedish match making company
Britain used approximately 250 million matches each day and they wanted a piece of the pie
In 1861, the Bryant & May matchmaking business was relocated to a three-acre site, on Fairfield Road, in Bow, east London
On nearby Bow Common, the company built a lumber mill to make splints from imported Canadian pine
Initially, Bryant & May only manufactured what were called “safety matches”
The alternative were a type of match called “lucifers” - like the devil - and being Quaker, Bryant & May wanted to steer clear of anything having to do with that guy
The difference between the older style of lucifers and safety matches was that lucifers were made with white phosphorous - sometimes called yellow phosphorous - and safety matches were made with red phosphorous
The lucifers incorporated white phosphorous directly in the match head, allowing them to be lit by striking on any surface
They got their name due to the use of sulfur in their production
Sulfur was also called brimstone - fire and brimstone is associated with hell and the Devil - the devil’s name is Lucifer - Lucifer matches…
And this is how all matches were made up until about the 1840s when they discovered red phosphorous
Then, instead of including phosphorous in the match head, they included the red phosphorous in a strike strip on the match box to ignite the match
However, red phosphorous was more expensive than white, so they had to charge more for them
People preferred the more inexpensive lucifers, so by 1880, Bryant & May had started making them as well
Lucifer matches were made by dipping sticks of poplar or Canadian pine in to sulfur, then in to a mixture of white phosphorus, potassium chlorate, antimony sulphide, powdered glass and colouring
The percentage of white phosphorous in a match was reported to be anywhere between 5 - 10%
Experienced workers could finish 1,400 frames in a ten-hour shift, which created ten million matches.
The operation itself though, was a sweatshop
Sweatshops became a thing from about 1830 - 1850, drawing immigrants and unskilled laborers to the cities
Labor laws and unions to improve worker rights existed, but they were in their early stages and most employers fought them every step of the way
By the 1880s Bryant & May employed nearly 5,000 people
1,200 to 1,500 of those were women and girls mostly between the ages of 13 and 20
The working conditions were overcrowded, poorly ventilated, rodent-infested and prone to fires
The workers were paid varying rates for different jobs, though all were painfully underpaid
Shifts were 10 - 14 hours long, and a worker rarely took home their full wages as a number of fines were levied against them by the foreman daily
These included having an untidy workbench, talking, being late, having a burnt match on their workbench, or having dirty feet - most workers could even afford shoes…
Workers were also responsible for supplying many of their own tools such as string, brushes or paste
Also, the work was dangerous
Aside from the numerous ways to be injured due to slipshot safety practices and rapid spread of disease due to overcrowded, unsanitary conditions, there was another danger present in the matchmaking factory - which was the occupational disease of phossy jaw
Phossy jaw was a condition directly attributed to working with white phosphorous without proper safety precautions
White phosphorous is very toxic when inhaled or ingested.
Workers were constantly exposed to phosphorous vapor and would come in to contact with it through their skin from handling the moist matches.
Some workers’ jobs entailed standing over large, hot vats of the chemical, while others would ingest it via hand to mouth contact through food and water
White phosphorus affected the jaw bone, causing painful toothaches and swelling of the gums
Sufferers would experience painful tooth loss, fistulas and recurrent abscesses
Eventually, their jaw bone would essentially just die
The distinguishing feature of phossy jaw was the eventual separation of the necrotic jaw bone which was described as porous and light in weight
The lower jaw was more commonly affected than the upper jaw, but in cases where the upper jaw was affected, abscesses would sometimes spread to the socket of the eye, which would result in permanent damage.
This would obviously result in terrible disfiguration with some being able to only consume liquid diets for the rest of their lives
It affected the lungs, resulting in coughing and spitting up of blood,
And, in some chronic cases, the disease also affected the brain, causing seizures
Newspaper accounts described a phosphorescent glow from the patient's breath and from the necrotic bone when they were in a darkened room
The condition was first diagnosed in 1839 by Friedrich Wilhelm Lorinser, a doctor in Vienna
Lorinser’s patient was a female matchstick maker who had been exposed to phosphorus vapors over a five-year period.
Another well documented case was that of a 16 year old girl in the US named Cornelia in 1857 who underwent two operations to remove her entire lower jaw bone - the first without anesthesia, and the second with laudanum to knock her out
Think about how bad that pain from phossy jaw must have been in the first place to consider jaw surgery without anesthesia as an option -
And then to go back a second time! Laudanum or not!
At the time the events we’re about to discuss in the 1880s took place, several countries had already banned the use of white phosphorus in factories, but not Britain
Mr. Bryant and Mr. May were aware of phossy jaw, and that it was happening to their workers
If it came to light at work that anyone was complaining of a toothache, they were told by management to get the tooth pulled immediately, otherwise they’d be fired
Even if you could afford to have the dental work done, just having the tooth pulled - or worse, surgery to remove necrotizing bone or other tissue - could be a death sentence in itself in the 1880s due to infection or blood loss
Tensions between workers and management began to reach a breaking point in the 1880s, and the matchmakers went on strike mostly over low wages and the unfair fine structure in 1881, 1885 and 1886
In 1888, things were made worse by poor timber harvests, resulting in hours being cut
The matchmakers needed help
Early labor laws and unions offer some support, but one of the driving forces behind these were organizations such as the Fabian Society, which existed from 1885–1890
The Fabian Society, and others like it, were early think tanks made up of elite citizens who focused on economic issues associated with industrialization and urbanization
The Fabian Society grew to become a leading academic society in the United Kingdom
Many members endeavored to use political influence to align with their goals
they wrote numerous studies of industrial Britain, including alternative co-operative economics that applied to ownership of capital as well as land
Fabian proposals favored progressive reform such as the introduction of minimum wage, universal healthcare, the abolition of hereditary peerage, and advocating for womens’ suffrage
One member of the Fabian Society was Annie Besant, a reformer and secularist
Besant was a public proponent of atheism and scientific materialism.
Her goal was to provide employment, better living conditions, and proper education for the poor
In 1874 she began to write for the National Reformer, the official publication of the National Secular Society, as well as making public speaking appearances
During a regular meeting of the Fabian Society in June of 1888, it was proposed and agreed upon that society members should boycott Bryant & May matches, due to reports of poor factory conditions and mistreatment of workers.
Besant wanted to take this a step further, and decided to research the matter for an article in the society’s publication, The Link
Her article, titled White Slavery in London, appeared in The Link on June 23, 1888
The opening of the article read:
AT a meeting of the Fabian Society held on June 15th, the following resolution was moved by H. H. Champion, seconded by Herbert Burrows, and carried after a brief discussion:
"This meeting, being aware that the shareholders of Bryant and May are receiving a dividend of over 20 per cent., and at the same time are paying their workers only 2¼ pence per gross for making match-boxes, pledges itself not to use or purchase any matches made by this firm."
In consequence of some statements made in course of the discussion, I resolved to personally investigate their accuracy, and accordingly betook myself to Bromley to interview some of Bryant and May's employees, and thus obtain information at first hand. The following is the outcome of my enquiries:
Can you imagine the way that Mr. Bryant and Mr. May must have broken out in a cold sweat after reading that intro?
Besant went on to confirm the dividend payouts from the last couple of years, then said, “Let us see how the money is made with which these monstrous dividends are paid.”
“The hour for commencing work is 6:30 in summer and 8 in winter; work concludes at 6 p.m.
Half-an-hour is allowed for breakfast and an hour for dinner. This long day of work is performed by young girls, who have to stand the whole of the time.
A typical case is that of a girl of 16, a piece-worker; she earns 4 shillings a week, and lives with a sister, employed by the same firm, who {and she quotes the child here} "earns good money, as much as 8 shillings or 9 shillings per week".
Out of the earnings 2 shillings is paid for the rent of one room; the child lives on only bread-and-butter and tea, alike for breakfast and dinner
The splendid salary of 4 shillings is subject to deductions in the shape of fines
if the feet are dirty, or the ground under the bench is left untidy, a fine of 3 pence is inflicted;
for putting "burnts" - matches that have caught fire during the work on the bench 1 shilling has been forfeited
in some departments a fine of 3 pence is inflicted for talking.
One girl was fined 1 shilling for letting the web twist round a machine in the endeavor to save her fingers from being cut, and was sharply told to take care of the machine, "never mind your fingers".
Another, who carried out the instructions and lost a finger thereby, was left unsupported while she was helpless.
The wage covers the duty of submitting to an occasional blow from a foreman; one, who appears to be a gentleman of variable temper, "clouts" them "when he is mad".
One department of the work consists in taking matches out of a frame and putting them into boxes; about three frames can be done in an hour, and ½ pence is paid for each frame emptied;
only one frame is given out at a time, and the girls have to run downstairs and upstairs each time to fetch the frame, thus much increasing their fatigue.
One of the delights of the frame work is the accidental firing of the matches: when this happens the worker loses the work, and if the frame is injured she is fined or "sacked"
A very bitter memory survives in the factory. Mr. Theodore Bryant, to show his admiration of Mr. Gladstone and the greatness of his own public spirit, bethought him to erect a statue to that eminent statesman.
In order that his workgirls might have the privilege of contributing, he stopped 1 shilling each out of their wages, and further deprived them of half-a-day's work by closing the factory, "giving them a holiday".
"We don't want no holidays", said one of the girls pathetically, for - needless to say - the poorer employees of such a firm lose their wages when a holiday is "given"
But who cares for the fate of these white wage slaves?
Born in slums, driven to work while still children, undersized because underfed, oppressed because helpless, flung aside as soon as worked out, who cares if they die or go on the streets, provided only that the Bryant and May shareholders get their 23 per cent., and Mr. Theodore Bryant can erect statues and buy parks?
Besant closed her article by essentially telling people to boycott Bryant and May matches
Vicious!
One week later - another Link article from Besant read:
I was called out of a meeting against the sweating system on Wednesday night, by a workman friend of mine, who came to me from Bow with the news that Bryant and May's factory was in a state of commotion, and the girls were being bullied to find out who had given me the information printed last week.
Cowards that they are!
Why not at once sue me for libel and disprove my statements in open court if they can, instead of threatening to throw these children out into the streets?
Besants source was correct
The powers that be at Bryant & May were furious
Since the article had come out, they had been busy trying to get the workers to sign papers contradicting the statements made in the article - but the girls wouldn’t sign them
On July 2, 1888, Bryant & May finally fired a girl for refusing to sign
Though they tried to state the dismissal was over some other infraction, everyone knew what this was about, and the workers decided to strike
By the end of the day, approximately 1,400 women and girls refused to work
A deputation of three women went to speak to Bryant & May management, and they had a list of demands
Bryant & May readily agreed to reinstate the fired employee but were dismissive of the additional demands
The women of the Bryant & May match factory doubled down and by the end of day 4 on July 6, the entire factory had stopped working.
That day, 100-200 women marched to Bouverie Street, seeking the support of Annie Besant.
The original deputation of women who had spoken to Bryant & May management met with Besant and succeeded in securing her assistance in forming a strike committee
The committee was expanded to include 5 more women - and I want to make it a point to read their names out loud, as history usually doesn’t favor remembering the names of brave, important women such as these:
The initial deputation included:
Sarah Chapman
Mary Cummings
Mary Naulls
They were joined on the strike committee by:
Alice Francis
Kate Slater
Mary Driscoll
Jane Wakeling, and
Eliza Martin
Together, the women held public meetings to gain sympathetic press coverage, in which they succeeded
They also received help from the London Trades Council and Toynbee Hall, a charitable institution whose purpose was to address the causes and impacts of poverty in the East End of London,
On July 11th, member of parliament, Charles Bradlaugh, spoke in parliament on the matter, after which members of the strike committee met with additional members of parliament to gain their support
At first, Bryant & May management held firm, but factory owner, Bryant, was a leading Liberal and became nervous about all the bad publicity he and his business were receiving
With Besant’s help, the strike committee met again with Bryant & May management on July 16th, and, after this, Bryant & May gave the workers everything they were asking for
They agreed to abolish the fine system, deductions for the cost of materials, and other unfair deductions
They also agreed that grievances could be taken directly to management, whereas before workers were only able to escalate to the foreman, who often ignored or failed to communicate complaints up the ladder
An important additional term was that meals were to be taken in a separate room, where the food would not be contaminated with phosphorus.
These terms were accepted and the strike ended
Later that year, following the strike's success, the Union of Women Matchmakers was formed
Twelve women were elected to the Union’s committee, including Sarah Chapman, who was subsequently made President.
Chapman would then be elected as the Union's first representative to the Trades Union Congress, and was among those who attended the 1888 International Trades Union Congress in London, and the 1890 Congress in Liverpool
it was the largest union of women and girls in the country, and it inspired industrial workers in other sectors to organize
Bryant & May did continue manufacturing lucifer matches, and did follow through on some safety precautions regarding the use white phosphorous - though the use of the chemical continued to be a hazard
In 1891, Salvation Army founder William Booth opened a competing match factory that refused to use white phosphorous
This provided safer jobs, plus an alternative to consumers looking to boycott the more dangerous and unethical lucifer matches
However, The Salvation Army factory had the same problem Bryant & May’s had when they tried to only sell safety matches
Red phosphorous was more expensive resulting in a markup that consumers were not willing to pay, so long as there was a cheaper option available
Bryant & May was actually able to take over the Salvation Army match factory in in 1901
The same year, French chemists discovered a safe substitute for white phosphorous, which finally brought an end to the use of white phosphorous in matches
It would be another 7 years before the House of Commons passed an Act officially prohibiting the use of white phosphorus in matches after December 31, 1910.
Bryant & May rebuilt their Bow factory in 1909-1910, with a number of modern innovations including two tall towers housing water storage tanks for a sprinkler system.
By 1911, it employed more than 2,000 female workers and was the largest factory in London.
Today the old match factory is known as Bow Quarter
It’s a gated community that was redeveloped in the 1980s, in one of east London's first urban renewal projects
It looks lovely, I’ve included a link to it’s site in the episode blog on my website
I do have a rather unfortunate footnote about our heroin, Sarah Chapman
Listen up though since there is actually still a way, here and now in 2024, that we can help her out!
Sarah Chapman died in November of 1945
It’s reported that she was buried in a ‘pauper’s grave’ in Manor Park Cemetery.
History pretty much forgot about Sarah’s final resting place until, despite the complete absence of a marker, it was rediscovered by her great granddaughter in 2017.
In 2019, a charitable organisation called The Matchgirls Memorial was founded to raise awareness of the matchgirls' strike and its participants
They collected donations for the creation of a proper headstone for Sarah Chapman and also put forth a goal of erecting a statue in commemoration of strikers and organisers
The Matchgirls Memorial organization were able to purchase a headstone, but learned that the cemetery where Sarah was buried intended to “mound over” her burial plot in 2019, in order to create space for more burials
Not wanting Sarah’s grave to be lost, the Matchmakers Memorial created the change.org petition to gain support for preserving her grave
As of today the petition has a total of 10,476 signatures with a goal of 15,000
Despite this progress, the cemetery did move forward with mounding over of her grave
An update from December 2022 reads
As many of you know, despite protests, local and in Parliament, Sarah Chapman’s grave has now been mounded but we did manage to ensure that no heavy machinery went over her. We have the location securely marked physically and digitally, and hope to reinstate the temporary wooden cross and chain in 2023.
The new headstone is in secure storage at the Trades Union Congress HQ and can be put into position in 3 - 5 years, once the earth has compacted and settled. We will then plan a celebration for Sarah and people will then be able to go and visit to pay their respects.
Though this last update was awhile ago, the petition is still open for accepting signatures and if you’re interested I encourage you to go check it out and sign if you are moved to do so
I’ll include the link in the show description and also in the episode blog on my website
In 2021, a new housing development in Bow was named after Sarah Chapman, though after learning about her gravesite, this felt a bit like a sad consolation prize to me…
In 2022 the English Heritage Trust commemorated the site of the former Bryant & May factory in Bow, London with a blue plaque - which is the the UK version of US’ historical markers
And that is the story of the Matchstick Girls and the end of phossy jaw…
Actually just kidding… I have another unfortunate footnote for you
In an odd twist, modern medicine has accidentally resurrected the disease of phossy jaw through use of a group of drugs called bisphosphonates
It’s called bis-phossy jaw or osteonecrosis of the jaw
Bisphosphonates are commonly used in cancer treatment and to reduce the impact of bone thinning
But for reasons that are not really well understood yet, they have the potential to cause deterioration of the jaw.
This is not a medical podcast, so I will not try to explain further - but, the resources I used did note that this condition is rare and that those drugs have proven to be very safe and effective in low doses
As usual I’ve included those resources for you in the episode blog on my website and encourage you to do your own research and of course seek any medical advice from your doctor
My friends, thank you SO much for supporting the podcast, please continue to share it with your friends
Thank you for listening, and I will talk to you again soon