7 "Hot" Products: Radioactive Gifts and Gadgets of Yesteryear

[one...two...tree 2,762]

QUITE A TESTI-MONIALOther, earlier items were not as harmless as Gilbert's Atomic Lab. The Radiendocrinator, circa 1930, serves as one glaring example. Working off the assumption (or at least public perception) that radiation offered health benefits and sexual fitness, inventor William J. A. Bailey produced this classy leatherette case containing a small, gold-plated device shaped like a thick credit card. This handy size aided the Radiendocrinator's placement near selected parts of the body, such as the testicles. Men were instructed to "wear [an] adaptor like any 'athletic strap,' (the cloth label in front). This puts the instrument under the ####### as it should be. Wear at night. Radiate as directed." Similar products existed for women, as well. ORAU's Frame notes that the Radiendocrinator remained radioactive decades later; before publicly exhibiting it, he had to remove the radiation source—radium-soaked pieces of blotter paper—for safety reasons.

The true extent of how many people were exposed to and later developed radiation sickness from the Radiendocrinator and other products like it will never be known, says Gary Mansfield, a retired radiation health expert who worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. "Back then not a lot was known about many of the aspects of radiation and radioactivity; people were still figuring it out," he says.

ELIXIR OF HALF-LIFETo be fair, it was not just trend-spotting commercialists like inventor William J. A. Bailey who got swept up in the radiation craze. "Physicians took off with the idea...they tried to use it for every disease under the sun," says Ross Mullner, an associate professor of health policy and administration at the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

One person who should not have followed his doctor's advice was Eben Byers, a wealthy socialite and industrialist. After suffering an arm injury, and per a physician's recommendation, Byers began imbibing radium-infused drinks, such as Radithor, shown here. (Modern-day sports drinks, with their Technicolor complexions, only look radioactive in comparison.) Marketed as "perpetual sunshine" in a bottle and as a "cure for the living dead," Radithor instead led to Byers losing most of his jaw and having holes form in his skull. His death in 1932 at the age of 51 received significant media attention and largely ended the radium drink fad, Mullner says.

As for Bailey, he died of bladder cancer in 1949 at the age of 64. According to a 1993 Scientific American article, the self-titled "Doctor" Bailey "never agreed that small doses of radioactivity were harmful, and he asserted that his health and spirits were excellent almost to the end."

more...

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Take a Geiger Mueller instrument to an antique shop. You might find something radioactive. Just turn the sound off so you don't scare people.

http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/consume...ts/consumer.htm

You can buy instruments on Ebay.