Letters Received to Mr. Chase [Irving H. Chase], July 2, 1925

COPY INGERSOLL WATCH COMPANY. LTD. Ingersoll House, Kingsway, London, W. C. 2 (England) ESD/GEM To Waterbury Clock Co. July 2nd 1925 Waterbury, Conn. No. 893 Gentlement Dear Mr. Chase: I have your letter of June 22nd, with further comments in your penned letter of the same date, and newspaper clippings regarding the scare which the "New York world" (and perhaps other papers) have started in regard to a possible danger to the health of those applying Luminous Material to Watch and Clock dials, etc. With my knowledge and experience of the subject, the first impression I get from reading these newspaper clippings is that there was a temporary shortage of murders or other news of a sentational character and so some newspaper Reporter with a lively imagination has started something. There is no doubt but that the handling of pure Radium or pure Radium Bromide needs to be done with care and according to methods well known to those who make a practice of handling such material whether in the Factories producing it or in Hospitals or elsewhere, but the amount of Radium Bromide in the material as it comes to us for luminising our Watch and Clock Pials is so infinitesimal that to me it is the height of absurdity to suggest that the handling of this material could in any way be detrimental to anybody's health. We started to luminise Watch dials a little more than 11 years ago. We still have one girl who was with us and employed in that Department when we first began to luminise dials, viz;- March 1914. Another of our Operators has been employed contimuously in that Department for ten years; two others for nine years each; two for eight years, and several others for varying periods between five and eight years. The luminous element in the very first material we used was Radium Bromide. After the war started, we had difficulty in getting supplies and had to make use of a considerable amount of material, of which the luminous element was mesathorium or radiothorium, but as soon as we could get the material we preferred we got back to that of which the luminous basis was Radium bromide. We began using the material of the United States Corporation some six or seven years ago.