Uranium Queen of 1956, Brook Robin (image via mentalfloss)
Believe it or not: People used to color glass with uranium (in oxide diuranate form).
Uranium was not seen as being particularly dangerous during the 19th century; so the development of various uses for the element, such as tableware and household items were quite normal. Continue reading
Radium / X-ray
Radium was discovered by the French Marie Sklodowska-Curie and her husband Pierre Curie on 21 December 1898, in a uraninite sample, which is a mineral.
Hard to believe nowadays, but radium has been used for medical purposes, (after it’s use as research tool) injected or in pill-form, to cure illnesses from hair loss to rheumatism (and almost everything in between) After that “break-through” radium, and radioactivity in general, became the hype during the 1920s and ’30s. Especially for consumer products: Toothpaste, make-up, chocolate, butter, condoms, wool and much, much more…were advertised with radium as an unique selling point.