Westclox Radium Dial Clock

 One of the objects on display in the Benton County Historical Society's Corvallis Museum is this Westclox Radium Dial Clock.  It can be found with some other clocks in a case in the second floor hallway.

Westclox began as the United Clock Company in Peru, Illinois in 1885. After several changes of ownership, it became the Western Clock Company and began using Westclox as a brand name sometime before 1916.  In 1908, employee George Kern designed the company's famous “Big Ben” alarm clock which enclosed the ringing device within the clock instead of using a bell on top.

The company's “Big Ben” and the smaller “Baby Ben” clocks became top sellers: in 1913, their combined sales totaled over 900,000 clocks.

In the 1920s, the company added a new feature- luminous dials.  Now the owner could see what time it was even in the darkest night. 

The glow was created by painting the numerals with a mixture of radium and zinc sulfide.  The painting was done by young women employed by the Radium Dial Company which located in Ottawa, Illinois to be close to Westclox, its major customer. The women had to meet exacting standards of accuracy in application of the expensive paint to the dials, which was especially difficult with the small numerals on the watches and “Baby Ben” dials.

Because the bristles of the brushes tended to splay with use, they used different techniques to maintain the point. Because dipping the brush in water or wiping it on a cloth wasted the expensive radium, the company discouraged the use of these methods. So the women began using a technique which some had learned from china painters-- lip pointing-- or pulling the end of the brush between their lips. Although some women did not like the gritty feel of the paint, the pressure to keep up with production standards (especially important as they were paid by the number of dials completed), they continued to use this method. 

In addition, the women received the radium mixture in powdered form and had to mix it with a small amount of water to make the paint. The powdered radium mixture flew everywhere.  The women would leave work with their hair and clothes sprinkled with it. Some of the young women thought it was fun to go out at night glowing from the dust and some even painted their nails with the radium paint!

Radium was relatively new then and, because it had been shown to kill cancerous tissues, people thought of it as a benign substance. In addition, plant officials told the young women that the quantity of radium in the paint was too small to do any harm.  But soon some of the women began having health and dental problems. Their teeth and part of the jaws fell out. Several died. The symptoms were similar to “phossy jaw” caused by exposure to phosphorous, a known industrial poison, so eventually the source was recognized and other substances substituted for radium paint.  If you'd like to know more, author Kate Moore has written about these women in her book, Radium Girls.

And, to assuage any concerns you might have about the museum displaying the clock, know that the museum checked the levels of radiation emitted with a Geiger counter to ensure it was safe to put on exhibit.

By Martha Fraundorf, Volunteer for Benton County Historical Society, Philomath, Oregon