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The Women Who Started Glowing

The story of how the luminous element caused New Jersey’s young women to glow before they disintegrated in the shadows

Calin Aneculaesei
4 min readFeb 22, 2022
A watch worker using radium to make the clock faces glow in the dark. Source: Wikicommons

TThe tragedy of these women began in 1917 when the first of three of the United States Radium Corporation factories opened and began employing innocent young women with all the potential ahead of them in their elite positions but unbeknown to the danger they were exposing themselves to.

While the men of the United States were doing their bit with firearms on the front lines, these young women were armed with radium, painting the tiny dials of wrist watches, some of which were only 3.5 centimetres wide. The exciting feature of ‘glow-in-the-dark’ that was achieved by the radium paint was a so-believed convenience and upgrade for the normal, dull wristwatch as you could.

The impact of radiation

Unknown to the danger of the shining miracle, they would flaunt their advantage of glowing after being exposed to the radium for so long during their shifts and would even paint it on their teeth to achieve the perfect smile- what was the harm? Paired with their best dresses the women were something magical when they went out at night. However, the glowing advantage turns ghastly when the truth of this element started to…

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Calin Aneculaesei
Calin Aneculaesei

Written by Calin Aneculaesei

Student of Philosophy, Politics and Economics. History fanatic. Contact: aneculaeseicg@gmail.com

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