FRIDAY SURPRISE: Glow in the dark

Friday, May 18, 2007 Filed in: Friday Surprise!, History, Completely irrelevant
Back when I was a teenager, I apprenticed to a master watch- and clock-maker. He was an older fellow - in his early 70s - and had been in the business for a very long time.

I enjoyed looking around his shop in spare moments, as he had many old and wonderful gadgets on his jam-packed shelves. One one high shelf, way in the back, was a little vial of off-white liquid. I asked him what it was, and he said "radium paint. We used to use it to make the numbers on dials visible in the dark. Don't touch it!"

He never did explain to me why I shouldn't touch it, but I obeyed his command and forgot all about it. That is, until I ran across this article on US Radium, the company that made the paint in that little bottle.

-=[ Grant ]=-
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