Page 1 of 1

The forgotten 'Ghost girls'

Posted: Sun May 07, 2017 3:11 pm
by FloridaPhil
Thought I'd share this fascinating and horrific story of the women who painted radium on watch dials during WW1. How the world has changed in just 100 years.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/authorkatemoor ... fiXJdk6enr

Image

Re: The forgotten 'Ghost girls'

Posted: Sun May 07, 2017 8:55 pm
by kiter65
Very interesting and unbelievable how large organisations behave
Very brave ladies

Re: The forgotten 'Ghost girls'

Posted: Fri May 19, 2017 7:53 pm
by UncleDicky
scary stuff, posted a link on degenerated radium paint - given the half life of radium it's only 4% less radioactive than it was 100 years ago.

The designers of the first nuclear bomb estimated that most casualties would come from flying bricks and glass, radiation sickness was not considered a real risk.

This blasé attitude to radiation was evident post WW2 when MacArthur very nearly used nukes against the Chinese during the Korean war, fortunately Ike intervened and fired him. However, the command structure permitted generals in the field to deploy nukes until this was made an executive decision by Eisenhower.

Re: The forgotten 'Ghost girls'

Posted: Thu Jul 27, 2017 8:31 pm
by stolivar
I just finished reading https://www.amazon.com/Radium-Girls-Sto ... 149264935X

It was a harrowing read. What these poor girls were put through is simply amazing and evil, but because these brave women fought so hard, we now have OSHA and many other laws and departments to watch our for employee safety. We all owe them a debt!

Re: The forgotten 'Ghost girls'

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 3:38 am
by KevinB
The musical "Shining Lives" is a stunning tribute to the story of these women. If you love watches and history, this is a tremendous show.

Re: The forgotten 'Ghost girls'

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2017 11:24 pm
by sef
Very interesting read. Pretty crazy to think about the fact that those girls would paint their teeth with radium for a glowing smile :o


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Re: The forgotten 'Ghost girls'

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 1:11 pm
by Thegreyman
vfrock wrote:^LOL
I don't know if you've read the whole article, but there is not much LOL about it.

Re: The forgotten 'Ghost girls'

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 1:18 pm
by nbg
Thegreyman wrote:
vfrock wrote:^LOL
I don't know if you've read the whole article, but there is not much LOL about it.
Agreed. :thumbdown:

I think perhaps more about adding a short post to many threads, in pursuit of the promised land (SC)! :silent:

Neil

Re: The forgotten 'Ghost girls'

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 3:30 pm
by Mikkei4
nbg wrote:
Thegreyman wrote:
vfrock wrote:^LOL
I don't know if you've read the whole article, but there is not much LOL about it.
Agreed. :thumbdown:

I think perhaps more about adding a short post to many threads, in pursuit of the promised land (SC)! :silent:

Neil
Averaging around 5 words per post.

Re: The forgotten 'Ghost girls'

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 3:37 pm
by nbg
^^^ Yep I counted them yesterday - don't think today's have Improved.

Neil

Re: The forgotten 'Ghost girls'

Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2017 10:11 pm
by vfrock
nbg wrote:
Thegreyman wrote:
vfrock wrote:^LOL
I don't know if you've read the whole article, but there is not much LOL about it.
Agreed. :thumbdown:

I think perhaps more about adding a short post to many threads, in pursuit of the promised land (SC)! :silent:

Neil
:lol: :lol: :lol:

Re: The forgotten 'Ghost girls'

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 11:55 am
by TG3N
One post elsewhere on the forum did actually contain multiple words, but was retrospectively edited down to just one (now deleted - good work, Mods) - which might be preferable, because the original comment was regrettably crass.

Re: The forgotten 'Ghost girls'

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2017 12:32 pm
by Tyke
TG3N wrote:One post elsewhere on the forum did actually contain multiple words, but was retrospectively edited down to just one (now deleted - good work, Mods) - which might be preferable, because the original comment was regrettably crass.
Perhaps it's our friend with the multiple personalities cropping up again? :problem:

Re: The forgotten 'Ghost girls'

Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 10:51 pm
by FloridaPhil
Amazon US has the Kindle version of the book Radium Girls by Kate Moore, the author of the original Buzzfeed story I posted, on sale today for just $2.99

https://www.amazon.com/Radium-Girls-Sto ... bemail6-20

Image

Re: The forgotten 'Ghost girls'

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 5:50 pm
by 0uatiOW
A really interesting read, covering a terrible by-product of the interest we all share, but more telling is the shameful denials of the company in its own self interest. Looks like things haven’t changed too much in that respect.

The article got me wondering if the same risks exist today, and whether watchmakers working on vintage watches are also at risk. I found the answer to the first of these quite easily - Super-LumiNova (strontium aluminate) isn’t radioactive....