[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab

[Michael Alexander]

 The hazards of x-rays and radioactivity ought to have been well known before radium dial watches and fluoroscopy.  Several  x-ray pioneers suffered horrible disfigurement and deaths.  I believe Marie Curie and others were similarly afflicted.  Research on radiation and genetics by Herbert Muller won him 
a Nobel Prize during the 1920s.
Fortunately, Manhattan Program workers were (as far as I know) well protected, since its leaders understood the dangers of energetic radiation.  The lessons should have been rammed home by news of radiation sickness among ‘survivors’ of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki A-bomb blasts.
However, as the chemistry set illustrates, the lesson didn’t hit home everywhere it should have.  Another, tragic, example was at A-bomb tests at Yucca Flats, in which Army Troops were ordered to walk inti the ground zero srea, even before dust had settlrd.  

On Tuesday, May – Mike Alexander, 9:59 AM, Stern, Marc <MSTERN at bentley.edu> wrote:

 #yiv1089367592 P {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;}Hello.  I'm new to this list and group.  I'm not sure that kids playing with radioactive isotopes or asbestos were some of the wiser ways of developing an interest in science and the world around us.   I'm pretty sure I had a piece of uranium in my rock collection as well.
I had one of those watches too. They were very cool to see glow in the dark.  For a different take on the social cost (not the pleasure of the watch) check out the book Radium Girls: Women and Industrial Health Reform, 1910-1935 by the late Claudia Clark.  The book chronicles the nightmarish fate of so many of the young women who worked in the dial painting industry.  Rather like the girls who worked in phosphorous match making (who died of "phossy jaw"). And while the little piece of asbestos was probably no big deal, it's ubiquity in American construction, it's devastating human effect on thousands in many industries, including, not least, construction and shipbuilding, and mining communities while firms knew the damage they were causing (see Defending the Indefensible, by McCullough and Tweedale) ..., well, that little piece probably wasn't a threat, but that's not why things changed.  The fluoroscopes were cool, to be sure, but the shoe salesmen who died,  you get the idea.   And I suspect Bill would have taken way more than one shot to his feet.  I suspect coming of age after Hiroshima and Nagasaki might have sharply reduced the use of those machines.
I too want kids to range, explore and make their own ways with less parental and adult oversight and control.  I really fear for the loss of autonomous play.  I wonder if the smaller size of families induces both greater emotional, social, and financial investment (and fear of loss) with fewer children per family?  There's interesting work on the class differences in this sort of question as between larger working-class families and smaller middle/upper-middle class families.   
Sorry for babbling on by way of saying hello.  
Marc Stern


From: LCTG <lctg-bounces+mstern=bentley.edu at lists.toku.us> on behalf of William Quinn <wquinn49 at yahoo.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2020 9:53 AM
To: carllazarus at comcast.net <carllazarus at comcast.net>; jjrudy1 at comcast.net <jjrudy1 at comcast.net>; mwolfe at vinebrook.com <mwolfe at vinebrook.com>; 'Lexington Computer Group New Address Distribution' <LCTG at lists.toku.us>
Cc: 'Brett Rudy' <bkrudy at gmail.com>; 'Jason Feightner' <jf8ner at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab I was born in 1949 but I don't remember ever seeing a fluoroscope at the shoe store in NY. I must have just missed that. I would have been fascinated by that device!



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On Mon, May 11, 2020 at 9:54 PM, Carl Lazarus<carllazarus at comcast.net> wrote:===============================================
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