Grace Fryer and The Radium Girls

A story of tragedy and the birth of workers’ rights.

Published in

The History Insider

11 min readOct 12, 2022

Radium Girls. (2022, October 6). In *Wikipedia*. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls

Feeling congested Grace Fryer excused herself from the front office of the bank, withdrawing to privacy to blow her nose. When she was safely out of range of sight and sound, she blew hard into a handkerchief she had taken from her pocket. As Grace proceeded to remove the handkerchief from her nose to fold it in half to try again, she stopped dead in her tracks. Alarmed by the sight, Grace nearly fell backward. The handkerchief glowed.

Grace couldn’t help but think back to her time working as a dial painter at a radium factory in Orange, New Jersey. Sure, the radium glowed there, that was the point. They were told countless times that it was perfectly safe and once again when a question arose about the method of making sure the tip of the paintbrush was extra pointy by placing it between their lips and wetting it with their tongues. But why here? How had she made this handkerchief glow before her? Was she infected in some way?

This would be only the beginning of the oddities surrounding Grace Fryer’s life. A heartbreaking reality would soon set in that affected more than just Grace, but those who shared the familiar title of “dial painter.” And before long, they would share a new title, “The Radium Girls.”

The Discovery of Radium

Marie and Pierre Curie first laid eyes on one another in 1894 at Sorbonne University in Paris, France. Pierre resided at the School of Physics and Chemistry as a professor, and Marie as a student studying physics and mathematics. The couple quickly bonded over their common interests in natural sciences and by July 1895 they would be married. In the same year, Pierre would publish his doctoral thesis on the connection between temperature and magnetism giving birth to what we know today as “Curie’s Law.” By 1897 the couple would share the birth of their daughter Irene, and soon after Pierre would help secure Marie a job in the school’s laboratory. Here she would conduct further research into her husband’s discoveries in magnetism, specifically into the properties of the magnetism of steel. But bound for much more, Marie would spark interest in writing her own doctoral thesis and soon a research topic would present itself.

Wilhelm Rontgen amazed the world on December 28th, 1895, with his discovery of X-rays, and French physicist Antoine Henri Becquerel was just as impressed. Inspired by Roentgen’s revelation before him, Becquerel was inclined to find his own discovery in x-ray science by reaching for a connection between invisible radiation and phosphorescence. On February 24, 1896, Becquerel would stand before an assembly presenting his newfound discoveries armed with evidence. He explained by example that when uranium-based crystals were exposed to sunlight they would leave an everlasting shadow on photographic plates, even when wrapped in thick black paper. This experiment would be an important footnote in his later accidental discovery of spontaneous radiation and Marie Curie’s inspiration for research.

Like her husband before her, Marie sought recognition through the publication of her own doctoral thesis. Where the l’Academie de Sciences fell short in their attention with Becquerel’s discovery, Marie didn’t and was set on a path of research into the strange “uranium rays.” Working with the tools amongst her ranks, Marie used an electrometer at her disposal. This electrometer fabricated by her husband and brother-in-law worked based on the piezoelectric effect providing insight into materials that gave off weak electrical currents.

In her endeavor to find a chemical compound comparable to uranium, she would make multiple insightful discoveries. Firstly, she provided a prominent quality about radiation. The strength of radiation did not depend solely on the compound at hand, but on the amount of uranium or thorium, it contained. She proposed that many chemical compounds of the same element are different in structure and chemical characteristics. Lastly, after she was triumphant in her research of all elements of the periodic table, she concluded that the ability to radiate is linked to the interior of the atom and that only uranium and thorium contain the ability to give off radiation. This discovery would be groundbreaking and considered her biggest addition to the development of physics.

Amazed by his wife’s innovative findings, Pierre would soon join her side and by the end of June 1898, they would discover a substance 300 times stronger than uranium. The couple accounted for their accomplishment to the public in a publication in July of the same year suggesting the name of polonium for the newly found substance. Then on December 26, 1898, the Curies presented to l’Academie des Sciences evidence of an additional element, and with it a name, radium. In 1903 Antoine Henri Becquerel, Pierre Curie, and Marie Curie would graciously share a Nobel Peace Prize in Physics for their discoveries in radiation. While the world of science shared their names, the rest of the world embodied the thought of this miracle compound, seeking to use its properties to the fullest potential.

United States Radium Corps

Dr. Sabin Arnold von Sochocky had just completed his doctorate in medicine at the University of Moscow and his eyes were set on the promising narrative of “The American Dream.” In 1906 he moved to the United States, specifically immigrating to New York where he would spend the next 10 years practicing medicine. Dr. von Sochocky stayed busy during his tenure in New York before moving to New Jersey, providing ideas and contributions to the use of radium. In 1913 alongside Dr. Edward J. Lehman, he would play a part in the development of radioluminescent paint, seeing long-term use within one’s home. In 1921 he provided the following quote, “the time will doubtless come when you will have in your own house a room lighted by radium. The light, thrown off by radium paint on walls and ceiling, would in color and tone be like soft moonlight.” By 1917 Dr. von Sochocky, along with colleague Dr. George S. Willis, and a handful of investors, would form the Radium Luminous Material Corporation, later renamed the United States Radium Corp. The group’s primary focus was producing uranium, until eventually shifting to the application of Dr. Sochocky’s radioluminescent paint that he dubbed “Undark.”

Undark. (2021, December 20). In *Wikipedia*. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undark

The United States Radium Corp wasted little time opening three factories across New Jersey. One in Newark, Jersey City, and Orange, and with this ample workforce they jumped at the opportunity to assist the U.S. Military during World War 1 with a handful of products dosed in Undark. While the management team and scientists took the utmost precautions when handling the radium products, they could care less about their workers. This carelessness was evident by a common practice influenced by management throughout the production lines. They instructed the young women who worked in the factories to place the tip of their paint brushes between their lips and to wet it with their tongue to keep the tip extra straight. Their reasoning was that dial and watch painting was delicate work and keeping the paintbrush tips straight was crucial in providing the best quality work.

Dial Painters

Among the workforce at the radium factory in Orange, New Jersey was Grace Fryer. Daily activities for Grace and her co-workers included manning a workstation with a rack of dials nearby ready to be painted with a radioluminescent solution composed of glue, water, and radium powder that would be mixed into a glowing greenish-white paint. Once the paint was ready to be applied each of the dial painters would dip their brushes in and then neatly apply the paint to the dial’s numbers. When the brush lost its pointed appearance, the women lost the ability to paint accurately. To combat this each painter would follow the standard practice of bringing the brushes back to their pointed form by dragging the bristles between their lips. Grace is quoted saying,

“Our instructors told us to point them with our lips”, and, “I think I pointed mine about six times to every watch dial. It didn’t have any taste, and I didn’t know it was harmful.”

Much like Grace each of the other women shared a similar routine, unbeknownst at the time of the harmful and life-threatening effects of radium. In fact, much of the outside world saw radium as a magical cure-all because of its known use in cancer treatment. The dial painters’ exposure to radium expanded much outside of common practice and many women would often paint their nails, teeth, and faces because of the glow-in-the-dark properties.

Years later when Grace left her dial painting job for more suitable employment at a local bank, the lasting effects remained. First, she noticed that glowing snot had filled her handkerchief after she blew her nose and before long her teeth began to ache. By 1922 her teeth began to fall out and she suffered acute jaw pain. Throughout her painful struggles, Grace would visit various medical professionals who were alarmed by their x-ray findings. Grace was enduring severe bone decay in not only her mouth but her back as well. This finding left doctors bewildered; they hadn’t seen anything like it before. Finally, in 1925 a doctor suggested to Grace that her condition could have been the ever-lasting effects of working with radium at her previous employer.

Grace would not be the only worker to suffer from lasting effects due to radium poisoning, and because the human body confuses radium with calcium many of the cases were horrendous. Like, Grace, many victims saw the loss of teeth, beyond this many experience brittle bones that were easily broken and, in some cases, total spinal collapse. By the late 1920s, it is estimated that more than 50 people had died due to radium exposure with one of the most devastating cases recorded being that of Mollie Maggia.

Mollie Maggia was a fellow dial painter and co-worker to Grace and with the onset of a mysterious illness, she had no choice but to quit her job in 1922. Mollie first noticed excruciating pain in her jaw in the form of a toothache, she soon retreated to the dentist for a tooth removal. This pain only continued to spread and multiple teeth had to be removed. Where her teeth once sat, now blood and puss-filled ulcers began to grow making a simple everyday task like breathing hard to accomplish. This illness continued to spread from Mollie’s mouth to the rest of her body, and eventually, pain in her limbs would grow so terribly that it rendered her unable to walk. It wasn’t long before Mollie’s mouth and lower jaw had become a large abscess.

Mollie would visit the dentist for one of her last times in May of 1922 suffering from unbearable jaw pain and to the dentist’s horror, her jaw gave way to the weight of his fingers gently nudging. It was discovered that radium poisoning had deteriorated much of Mollie’s bone structure leaving it very porous. Later, on September 12 of the same year 24-year-old, Mollie Maggia would succumb to the lasting effects of radium when her throat deteriorated, causing her jugular vein to collapse, and unfortunately leaving her to choke to death on her own blood before medical assistance could intervene. Henceforth Mollie Maggia would set a precedence for what was to come for many of her fellow co-workers.

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/99916653/amelia-malia-maggia

Following the opinion of her doctor and fearful of a similar fate as her peers, Grace sought to expose the atrocities of the U.S. Radium Corporation and it didn’t take long for the organization to rear its wicked head in the form of a misinformation campaign. As Grace worked to expose the company, she was met by a Columbia University specialist claiming to be referred by friends, wanting to help her in her fight. Frederick Flynn offered to examine Grace’s conditions and she obliged. Flynn would be fruitful with evidence supporting his claim that Grace was in perfect health. It wouldn’t be long after this encounter that Flynn was exposed as a fraud. He wasn’t a licensed professional and lacked any medical training. Frederick Flynn was an industrial toxicologist and Vice President of the U.S. Radium who hoped to deter Grace Fryer in her pursuit of justice by squashing her confidence like a bug.

Legacy

Grace would not be hindered and was valiant in her efforts to take down U.S. Radium. As she gained momentum four of her fellow dial painters would join her side determined to file a lawsuit against the company, remaining resilient in their efforts to find a lawyer to take their case seriously. Eventually, in 1927 the women were successful in finding aid in their fight in the form of a young lawyer by the name of Raymond Berry. With the help of Berry, the women raised a lawsuit against U.S. Radium for their inhumanity if the form of $250,000.00 but because many of the women were living on borrowed time with some given less than a year to live, they eventually settled for significantly less, $10,000 each and a yearly annuity of $600 for as long as they lived. Beyond this cash settlement, they were truly victorious in their endeavors by exposing the deadly effects of radium poisoning because of their efforts.

The case of the Radium Girls was the first of its kind and a pivotal moment in the history of employee rights. The atrocities exposed during the movement, shined a light on the horrible conditions that some employees face and where their employer’s hearts and minds truly lay. As a result, the case would give birth to multiple laws intended to protect employees by holding employers accountable for their health and safety, eventually leading to the establishment of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

If this was a movie we would expect a happy ending on the part of Grace Fryer, but unfortunately, it is not so. Grace Fryer passed away on October 27, 1933, at the young age of 34 suffering from the lasting effects of radium poison like many of her fellow dial painters. I think it is important to remember Grace Fryer and her fellow Radium Girls for their tenacity. Let’s remember to always stand up for what is right and in life’s hardest battles, fight like you are dying.