Managing an Epidemic: Industrial Radium Poisoning and the Waterbury Clock Company

During World War I, self-luminescent watches, clocks, and instruments became available for the first time to the military and then to the public. Newly discovered glow-in-the-dark paint incorporated a very small amount of radium, which through radioactive decay supplied energy to the luminescent zinc sulfide that made up the bulk of the formula. Young women applied the paint to watch, clock, and instrument dials with brushes pointed to fine tips between their lips. The “dial painters” thus continually swallowed small amounts of radium; some also inhaled radium dust suspended in air. No matter how it entered the body, the element accumulated in the dial painters’ bones, where its radiation initiated the slow development of anemia, osteoporosis, bone decay, and cancer. One dramatic outcome of radium in bone was infection: in the jaw, germs could enter dead bone through cavities, gum disease, or dental work, and raging infections of the jawbones were the first-noticed cause of dial painter deaths. Workers in the earliest-established dial painting “studio” in Orange, New Jersey suffered these illnesses beginning in 1922. They were joined in 1925 by dial painters in the watch-manufacturing center of Waterbury, Connecticut and in the 1930s by dial painters in Ottawa, Illinois. Between 1922 and 1928, New Jersey and Connecticut dial painters sought recognition of radium poisoning; the “discovery” of this new industrial disease was less an event than a social and political process. Into the 1930s, the dial painters asserted their interests on three sets of interlocked issues: establishing radium as the cause of their illnesses, compensating injured workers and their families, and preventing future illnesses.1 Connecticut's dial painters and watch manufacturers played important roles in all three contests.The most influential watch and clock manufacturer was the Waterbury Clock Company. This paper traces the company's successes at delaying the discovery of radium poisoning, blocking state compensation, and impeding—but not totally blocking—efforts by workers, consumer groups, and public health officials to protect radium workers. First, when a series of jaw infections threatened the lives of New Jersey dial painters, their employers dismissed the cluster of illnesses as periodontal disease unrelated to employment. Waterbury watch manufacturers deliberately concealed jaw infections in Connecticut dial painters that would have corroborated the New Jersey women's charge that they suffered a compensable industrial disease. In 1925, middle-class women reformers who were allied with the New Jersey dial painters discovered the cover-up and revealed the Connecticut cases. Waterbury dial painters’ illnesses proved the existence of radium poisoning. Second, Connecticut's dialpainters faced unique difficulties in winning compensation. Dial painters elsewhere won compensation through negligence suits or state workers’ compensation laws. In Connecticut, watch manufacturers secured legislation that blocked workers’ access to the state compensation system. Diseased workers received meager, company-controlled, private settlements. Third, the experiences of poorly compensated Connecticut women dial painters, most of whom died of radium poisoning, led to data that experts in the 1940s utilized to establish the nation's first radiation safety standards. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, however, the Connecticut dial painters’ employers successfully minimized radium's dangers and avoided regulation.Compared to dial painters elsewhere, Waterbury dial painters less successfully promoted their concerns. The difference may be linked to the greater political power of business interests in Connecticut compared to New Jersey and Illinois. In Connecticut's watch industry we may study one outcome of business domination of politics.Clock and watch manufacture came to Connecticut during the nineteenth century and centered in the Naugatuck Valley, known as “Brass Valley” because of its concentration of brass industries. The men of the valley were familiar with industrial disease: brass workers suffered from what was variously called “spelter shakes,” “metal fume fever,” or “brass founder's ague”—fevers and chills resulting from inhalation of the fumes of metal oxide, especially zinc oxide. Brassworkers’ wives and daughters found employment in the valley's clock and watch factories, some of them producing the famous Waterbury dollar watches. The Waterbury Clock Company started as a brass mill department, became a separate entity in 1887, and by the twentieth century was producing five million watches a year. Other clock and watch companies came and went in Waterbury, but by 1925 they were consolidated within the Waterbury Clock Company (later the U.S. Time Corporation, still later, Timex). Dial painting also took place in Connecticut firms in other cities, such as the New Haven Clock Company, the E. Ingraham Company of Bristol, and the Seth Thomas Clock Company of Thomaston.2Dial painting originated in New Jersey, where the U.S. Radium Corporation began producing luminous paint in 1917 and applying it to clock, watch, and instrument dials. By 1919, U.S. Radium decided to transfer dial painting to clients like the Waterbury Clock Company, while still manufacturing and selling to them its radium-laced luminous paint. To help facilitate the transition, U.S. Radium sent instructors to train Waterbury's fledgling dial painters in the appropriate techniques, including lip-pointing of brushes. Dial painting began in Waterbury in 1919. Dial painters in Connecticut, as elsewhere, were invariably women, usually young women between the ages of 15 and 25.3New Jersey dial painters began to die of radium poisoning in 1922. By 1923 they suspected a relationship between their former work and a cluster of illnesses and deaths. Between 1922 and 1928, New Jersey's dial painters, with the aid of reformers from an allied women's organization, the New Jersey Consumers’ League, campaigned to prove that a new industrial disease was killing workers. The U.S. Radium Corporation objected to the conclusion that deaths and illnesses among dial painters were related to their work. Corporation officers argued in 1924 that since the illnesses had appeared in only one of several dial painting locations in the United States, the cause of the illnesses was unrelated to dial painting. The corporate officers overlooked the fact that dial painting began there in 1917, and the first New Jersey deaths occurred five years later in 1922; dial painting commenced in Connecticut in 1919, so the first Connecticut deaths might not have been expected until around 1924.4Frances Splettstocher became the first non-New Jersey victim of radium poisoning. She had worked for four years at Waterbury Clock Company. At the age of twenty-one in early 1925, she began suffering from pain in her face and a sore throat; she seems to have had severe tonsillitis as well as the jaw infection and anemia common to the early radium cases. Splettstocher's case progressed typically. When an infected tooth was pulled, part of the weakened jaw came with it. The wound would not heal, and the surrounding tissue continued to rot and slough off, eventually creating a hole through to her cheek. Splettstocher was also anemic. By February 1925 she was dead.In March of 1925, publicity in the New York papers about the New Jersey cases came to the attention of Waterbury dial painters, their families, and Waterbury Clock Company executives. At least one dial painter later remembered that she “became frightened when Frances Splettstocher died, and would not work in the dial painting department again for any money.” Splettstocher's father also worked at the Waterbury Clock Company. He recalled that, “though he was sure” that radium poisoning had killed his daughter, “he did not dare make any kick about it” because he wanted to keep his job. Although the Waterbury Clock Company would never admit that Splettstocher's death was related to her employment, her death in February and the New Jersey publicity in March led the company to forbid further lip-pointing.5 Dial painters continued to apply radium paint to watch dials.In addition to ending lip-pointing, the Waterbury Clock Company contacted U.S. Radium and learned about the work of a young physiologist, Frederick Flinn. To help bolster its case against the existence of radium poisoning, U.S. Radium in 1925 had hired Flinn, who was on the faculty of Columbia University's program in industrial hygiene, to study dial painters. The corporation donated an electrometer to his studies so that he could measure radium deposition in dial painters. In one set of examinations, Flinn tested two former New Jersey dial painters, both ill, for deposited radium. Although both eventually would die from radium poisoning, he assured one that “her health was in better condition than his” and the other that none of her illnesses was attributable to radium.6The Waterbury Clock Company hired Flinn to examine its employees. In August of 1925, Flinn visited Waterbury and with a team of medical assistants examined all twenty-six of the current dial painters. Flinn reported that none of them was radioactive, none was ill. Flinn repeated his examinations around November of 1926, similarly conveying only good news.7In December of 1926 Flinn published the results of his research. Since no corroborating cases of jaw disease had been found among the Connecticut dial painters, he suggested that the New Jersey cases might be due to syphilis, or Vincent's angina (trench mouth), or other bacterial infection. He concluded, that “an industrial hazard not in the painting of luminous Jersey Consumers’ reformers discovered an in his December 1926 Flinn had the existence of any Connecticut dial painter illnesses, in of 1926, two he had a paper that a of bone in two former Connecticut dial painters. He about one case since this was would be the first case of radium poisoning by Waterbury Clock Company She had been among the women hired to paint dials in to company in 1923 became most from anemia, she continued to work until 1925, when she on a and a weakened from deposited radium. In 1925 she began suffering from the jaw of radium poisoning. the company first examinations in August of 1925, but he and the company about her medical The which Flinn learned about around 1926, may have been She became in of 1925, suffering pain in an then in one then in the then in her led to a jaw which led to tooth and bone until all of her and of her jaw were died in as did to about the and in Flinn also that, to his that no Waterbury deposited radium, or four were In Flinn published this He this time that not the cause of the condition in radium poisoning were by Flinn. including industrial were by his data and also a Consumers’ a in department, and she that Flinn had to one of her in of 1926 that not it but that the radium in the paint to in an for the his first published any between radium and the dial painters’ his of the Connecticut but she was not when his only that radium was to for the workers’ jaw In she to at to be by Flinn to any to U.S. Radium and his to as took a in her Flinn, a young at the beginning of and it a matter of no that be not to not to cause in the of men and than in to keep on in work, then the and in the of and be of to did not the During about negligence suits by New Jersey dial painters against U.S. the company hired Flinn to examine the and to as an for his Flinn to the that the five New Jersey dial painters in the were not radioactive at The U.S. Radium was in the as for delaying to young women, and Flinn was by several who began to to charge Flinn with a that in Flinn published a that, at the of the Waterbury cases were to the New Jersey dial painters’ that they had a new industrial disease, radium poisoning. New Jersey reformers the cover-up of the corroborating Connecticut cases. This some New Jersey dial painters, who eventually won from U.S. their cases by publicity and The Connecticut dial painters had no such and their compensation would be less radium poisoning as a disease, the of radium poisoning a workers’ compensation In Connecticut, the Waterbury Clock Company again Frederick Flinn. Although not a he was to dial painters’ to their and to for their at the while work to Flinn the Waterbury a reported in addition to this medical Flinn also in the dial painters’ cases. He with the dial painters or their By and the two Connecticut dial painters with radium poisoning who had appeared in both had died from jaw Flinn the company make a with her the compensation a of the in received while for a dial became around face became and tooth during for the jaw never and became continually and then two that and until her death in In to a with the Waterbury Clock Company for an amount of with the of health as a United of discovered during the radium in December of and February of first visited Waterbury's health other in which for industrial in Connecticut the state of was in however, that none of the Waterbury cases had been to the of that by the visited the Waterbury workers’ compensation No had been to the but he assured that the dial painters’ was than by The was by the of the Waterbury Clock reported that when the to the Waterbury Clock Company for its and good of its the department that had been made by the in to one of the and two of the dead so that no compensation was also a the of Frederick Flinn, had and other dial painters. The was by the clock was with of the visited the Waterbury Clock Company, where sought to in by that was to place the and at dial to that the women were to and die these Waterbury was a small by the clock a in which officers and medical to the interests of the clock the political in Connecticut also Connecticut have found the and not only but The for a to Connecticut that as of the to to as a for the political and social Connecticut the was and Connecticut called of the years surrounding Connecticut for to political within a state by a business and In the the successfully political to In Connecticut's cities, the the and with to At the state the at the of By World War of Connecticut's was or and most in but in 1924 the of Connecticut's that in of the in the state with the industry and political a and In workers had to the of a He an by a In the the of had been and won The and but these also were or By state power and began a that through to the in Connecticut by so that while in the United from to 1917, it in and World War a with of suspected and a of the in the also women's were in Connecticut in and at in 1917, but state officials this the U.S. the women's Connecticut's of the until its was The state in as the to when only state were In in the the state from its and the of legislation also social of social women by women's the U.S. to the which for that started and for and Connecticut was one of only three the In Connecticut, the power and was to or social did have its of women's In the 1920s these women's and of the of the the and and the Consumers’ elsewhere, linked the a for the Consumers’ League, the of in and the for In Connecticut, however, most women's came from families, and the small of women who business domination The Consumers’ of New Jersey was a that legislation to this recognition of radium poisoning. In the Consumers’ of Connecticut, one was “an of social During the it worked to and its was to the of women's work. women reformers in Connecticut never came to the aid of their dial painters, as did New Jersey the the political that the with business the and the of a in the and a in the During the from Connecticut's such corporate from of to including age and health was blocked in with the of one Connecticut had workers’ compensation in When state that the in the industrial the Connecticut in and again in the compensation to industrial business of the have did the health The been that business sought to “an from the of the not but corporate interests in the of the industrial health especially the of the discovery of radium poisoning, the influential clock companies faced negligence Workers with an disease who they could prove negligence could their the had to the especially could prove the workers had known of the to their health and had continued Workers suffering from an disease could of they could for workers’ compensation When the the workers’ compensation in it continued to of but it the of time for for from five years to was this To compensation to the dial painters. illnesses took years to and the dial painters could not for compensation until they could The new of that they had to within three years of work. new cases of radium poisoning would for compensation. Waterbury Clock Company this to United of The company still of dial painter Frances Splettstocher's death as a radium poisoning the did not matter as the case the by the the compensation and no other be by the Connecticut of on workers’ compensation against employers for no dial painter by radium for workers’ compensation in suits never the One was Frederick Flinn, who played a to the dial painters, he as a medical for the Waterbury Clock Company, he dial painters to that the company from further private medical by Flinn and small or settlements. workers’ compensation officials the watch company's private Connecticut dial painter was years when she to a from her would this of to the of deposited radium, which that in the where it cancer. reported that at first to with the clock company officials a to while his they to the company of all in his and death in for a of of her for medical and to a for of the Consumers’ League, reported on the case to the of In the radium this been the death of an of the Waterbury Clock in Waterbury, Connecticut in two of its women died of the the corporation a of the of which five This was to three years so that the of this could not was the of which he New York World to as the of Connecticut this learned that the of did his his had dial painting than three years her and thus her was no for to her three of his a with the we not the of that that, and to have of the was an dial painter who started work at and dials for about years later, she began suffering from a had it pulled, but found that her jaw would not The and a In she her former of in for a She died three later of infection and anemia, the Connecticut dial painter so to died in and a and a later her in from the Waterbury a in and died with her former in a her with the company in and died in made an with the company in died in and her then a the company of further Waterbury Clock Company deaths from radium poisoning in a it continued to the death of Frances the first Connecticut dial painter to die from radium poisoning. By the company had made with two women who were ill. One was who had been by Flinn that she was not radium in her She to an on radium poisoning in have had the of the the of the radium department by a who came from New York about a or was dismissed as In her jaw jaw to work of she it such a it made a of and it in such a condition that about in public around jaw to By a had from her and she would die in that year. to from one watch company for which she had worked and from the Waterbury Clock Company. The was She with the Waterbury company in and she would die of of the jaw in The company also on its four other women with illnesses, at from a of a to a of a One other case was In its the Waterbury Clock Company that five women would the five and would then have to be 1926 to early the Waterbury Clock Company had for and medical for dial painters. The the of the women, the two women who had received and the four women who were women in The radium company had an of that the cases had to or to the compensation the would have been that of these cases by the Waterbury Clock Company very of In addition to this we have the one with and we had these cases that the would in cases have been the on about a year. of a was set to future from reformers to to radium poisoning and to be the to the in with health in the United a Radium to were from the dial painting and watch companies in New Jersey, Connecticut, and the U.S. of the U.S. of and the U.S. of New Jersey's department and Connecticut's health the Consumers’ of New and the of and including and Frederick Flinn, were No one to any dial in the of the of the social of luminous watches to the in workers’ By 1928, he dial painters had died as well as or or their assistants to radium. Other workers, five men and women, were but what it all he luminous watch a he there in the manufacture of luminous watch dials to for what that watch the of a Connecticut watch radium's received from of the by luminous dials. He that his her that her clock with its radium dial to her than the the did not to the important of the safety of radium in manufacturing a the clock and watch manufacturers and they with an of the Waterbury Clock Company, they that the two One would to workers’ to radium and the and The been by the watch companies around No objected to a further it was that safety and health would on the of deposited radium on lip-pointing was or the inhalation of radium dust also workers at the would a study dial painters’ radium for the and lip-pointing was from the New Jersey department this dial painters would be would from of the to of the had repeated the that he had with the Waterbury Clock Company had the to dial the was that their them to radium poisoning. that some were for radium work because of such as anemia, while with good health and were for He a to health to radium workers they were the would to radium and of radium poisoning. workers to radium or to its would their The of for industrial from to of from to a 1920s business a New Jersey Consumers’ with a the companies what to from the the two the that the industrial and public health workers to the no that the or the to a study of radium poisoning. This was for several years but was published in The study revealed that radium dial painters hired thus lip-pointing had still radium, at an of dial when as as one were known to be Radium in the of the who did not any to protect dial painters. of dial painting was Connecticut cases were well by the officers of the watch and clock First, Waterbury Clock led during the Radium and his of dial painting. Second, compared to the New Jersey cases and the later Connecticut clock company officials in their radium poisoning cases from public thus the publicity and resulting public that the New Jersey and cases. Third, Connecticut's watch and clock companies their from for in as had New Jersey dial painters, and them from workers’ compensation as would workers. in an compensation in Connecticut that was about to the compensation in and less than in New the Connecticut's clock and watch companies found in Frederick Flinn a one in Connecticut by other in the in New Jersey, the women reformers of the Consumers’ had worked with and other to and to his This was one of a Connecticut and manufacturing the development of social and state who elsewhere for compensation, and of industrial were in New Jersey, no women's allied with Connecticut dial painters to to with to or to for Connecticut business the compensation In the of Connecticut's dial painters to public recognition of their and for their compensation and be to the political domination of Connecticut by business the health of workers in the of their employers compensation for the former dial painters as they became and died from radium poisoning. of radium poisoning also future dial painters to from the of radium.