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The U.S. Radium Industry: Industrial In-house Research and the Commercialization of Science

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Abstract

A fierce debate ensued after the announcement in 1913 in the U.S.A. that all rights and ownership of radium-bearing ores found on public land would be reserved by the government. At stake was the State monopolization of radium that pitted powerful industrialists with radium claims, mainly in the Colorado area, against the Bureau of Mines and prestigious physicians who wished to reserve radium for medical uses. This article describes the strategies of one of the biggest U.S. radium industries that dominated the radium market, created huge customer bases, and legitimized their role within the scientific community. In contrast to the European “radium situation,” radium extraction, production, and marketing in the United States was controlled by the industry; and industrial in-house research was clearly separate from that done in academic circles. The production of knowledge was ready-made in the factory and was entangled with commercial orders and advertising patterns.

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Notes

  1. Lane wants radium deposits protected, The New York Times, December 30, 1913, p. 5.

  2. Seeks radium in Colorado, The New York Times, September 12, 1912, p. 6.

  3. World supply of radium, The New York Times, October 26, 1913, p. C3.

  4. Plan to corner world’s radium, The New York Times, October 6, 1913, p. 2.

  5. The supply of radium, The New York Times, December 2, 1913, p. 10.

  6. America ignores her radium mines, The New York Times, May 5, 1913, p. 2.

  7. Phelps, Dodge and Co Records, The New York Public Library, Rare Books and Manuscript Division, Box 25AB; 2FB accessible on line http://www.nypl.org/research/chss/spe/rbk/faids/phelpsd.pdf.

  8. Scientists eyes on radium test, The New York Times, December 28, 1913, p. 1.

  9. Dr. Howard Kelly of John Hopkins, The New York Times, January 13, 1943, p. 23.

  10. Kelly for national control, The New York Times, December 28, 1913, p. 2.

  11. Exactly the same moral governed the establishment of the Radium Institute in Vienna in 1910. In a letter to the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Karl Kupelweiser, who financed the institute, clearly indicated that he wanted to “prevent the shame” of his country, caused by letting others “snatch away” the privilege of conducting radium research. He notified them that he was willing to place a contribution of 500,000 crowns at the disposal of the Academy for the construction and maintenance of an institute to be dedicated to research of the physical and chemical properties of radium. His offer was considered a patriotic act, which would foster the country’s progress and increase the empire’s prestige. Franz Serafin Exner also characterized Kupelwieser as “the patriotic friend of science” (Rentetzi 2007).

  12. Scientists’ eyes on radium test, The New York Times, December 28, 1913, p. 1. Testing plant for Denver, The New York Times, December 27, 1913, p. 2.

  13. The Radium Institute: Skin and other diseases will be treated in London hospital, The New York Times, August 27, 1911, p. C3.

  14. To supply Curie radium, The New York Times, May 4, 1921, p. 8.

  15. Wants U.S. to take his radium secret, The New York Times, February 14, 1914, p. 3.

  16. Cut radium’s cost fully one-third, The New York Times, November 22, 1915, p. 11. It is interesting to compare Lane’s understanding of “radium for our own people” with that of the Curies and the fact that they deliberately did not patent their radium extraction procedure but, instead, successfully sought collaboration with industrialists.

  17. In this respect, the case of the Standard Chemical Company could be compared to that of the Schering Pharmaceutical Company in Berlin, presented in an excellent study by Jean-Paul Gaudilliere (2005). Schering’s hormonal products did not result from the appropriation of the purification processes by biochemists but were developed by in-house research in the company’s laboratory. Through ingenious marketing strategies that had to do with in-house clinical and biological research, the company actually gave rise to the hormone market of the 1920s and 1930s.

  18. Kelly for national control, The New York Times, December 28, 1913, p. 2.

  19. Finds radium kills the cells of cancer, The New York Times, February 15, 1914, p. 2.

  20. Although filed in 1920, Viol’s patent was accepted 4 years later. In the meantime, and despite the fact that he filed his patent application in 1921, William Cummings from Delaware put forward a new improvement for radium needles, already approved in 1923 (USPO 1,442,051-1923). Another of his patents was a rod containing radium salts for medical treatment (USPO 1,406,509-1922). During the 1920s and early 1930s, several others hastened to secure their improved patents of radium needles and other devices that carried radium for medical treatment. See for example Sanford Withers USPO 1,578,945-1926; John Harris USPO 1,603,767-1926; Giocchino Failla USPO 1,753,287-1930; Joseph Muir USPO 1,754,178-1930; Gioacchino Faila and John Ernest Rose USPO 1,954,868-1934. In 1930, William Hoffman, assignor to the Memorial Hospital in New York, filed the first patent for devices for tumor biopsy specimens USPO 1,867,624-1932. See also Radium and Radon, Radium Chemical Company, Inc., catalogue of products, undated. Viol patented also a luminous composition used in painting watch dials. See USPO 1,202, 625-1916; USPO 1,210,731-1917; USPO 1,406,509-1922; USPO 1,494,826-1924.

  21. Dr. Richard Moore, Radium expert dies, The New York Times, January 21, 1931, p. 19.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Hans-Jörg Rheinberger for his hospitality at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin. To Paul Frame of Oak Ridge Universities in Tennessee I owe a debt for long-distance help in accessing important archival material. My thanks also go to Ursula Klein for her insightful comments on several versions of the paper and her overall support. It is my pleasure to thank the two anonymous referees of Minerva and the editors for helping me to clarify my arguments. Finally I would like to acknowledge the valuable editorial help of Spiros Petrounakos.

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  1. Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law, School of Applied Mathematics and Physical Sciences, National Technical University of Athens, Zografou Campus, Zografou, Athens, 15780, Greece

    Maria Rentetzi

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Correspondence to Maria Rentetzi.

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Rentetzi, M. The U.S. Radium Industry: Industrial In-house Research and the Commercialization of Science. Minerva 46, 437–462 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-008-9111-1

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