Amelia “Mollie” Maggia was the first to die. The 19-year-old woman started working at the Radium Luminous Materials Corp. in Orange, NJ, in 1917, and at first reveled in her job. It was lucrative — ...

The young women sat in rows, heads bent, painting numbers on paper watch and clock faces with luminous paint. The numbers on the wristwatches and clock dials were so tiny, the workers needed a very ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. A century ago, glow-in-the-dark watches were an irresistible novelty. The dials, covered in a special luminous paint, shone all ...

It was the miracle of the age, the secret of vibrant health, the magic formula for a brighter life. It turned darkness into light. It was liquid sunshine. Radium, discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie ...

Editor’s Note: This article previously appeared in a different format as part of The Atlantic’s Notes section, retired in 2021. In the 1920s, young women worked in an Ottawa, Illinois, factory ...