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    "localId": "75720076",
    "label": "Letters Sent to Dr. J.C. Bridge [John C. Bridge], September 2, 1925",
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    "title": "Letters Sent to Dr. J.C. Bridge [John C. Bridge], September 2, 1925",
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    "collections": [
        "Safety Light Collection",
        "Records Related to Radium Dial Painters"
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    "seq": 3,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "document",
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    "ocrText": "COPY\nPrivate\ncopy sent PJM/WM/HMS\nSeptember 2nd,1925.\nDr. J. C. Bridge,\nH.M. Medical Inspectory of Factories,\nHome Office,\nS.W.1.\nDear Sir:\nReferring to your recent call and inspection of our girls who are\nemployed at luminising the figures and hands of watch and clock dials.\nWe have been doing this work for nearly 12 years.\nDuring the War we luminised considerable quantities of various scientific\ninstruments for the Government, such as those used on Aeroplanes, Submarines, etc.,\nemploying a staff for several years of between 40 and 50 operators.\nYou wished to know the percentage of Radium Salts used in our Material.\nOur Radium Luminous Material is made in ten different grades.\nOn our own Watches and Clocks we employ only four grades according to the\nsize of the hands or figures of the watch or clock being luminised. The highest\ngrade we are now using on watches contains 132 microgrammes of Radium Bromide content\nto the Gramme of material, and the lowest grade we are now using on clock dials\ncontains 32 microgrammes of radium bromide content.\nDuring the war, the material generally used on orders from the war office\n(usually termed \"War Office grade\" or .2) contained 200 microgrammes of radium\nBromide content, and for orders from the Admiralty we employed \"Admiralty Grade\" or\n.4 containing 400 microgrammes.\nYou understand, doubtless, that both the material and the finished work\nfor the Government had to pass tests at the National Physical Laboratory.\nOwing to a scare in the U.S.A. which has recently been exploited by the\nyellow press, (probably because of a temporary shortage of sensational news) there has\nbeen some recent activity in the matter of inspection of the Factories producing Radium\nLuminous Material and organisations applying this material for commercial purposes.\nWe have just been infomed that on Aug.17th,Dr.F.B.Flinn with his Assistant\nDr.Pedley,accompanied by a nurse, (all from the Columbia University, New York City)visited\nour Factory at Waterbury Connecticut, and examined all employees who have been applying\nRadium Material to our Watch or Clock dials there.\nThere were 26 of these employees. An examination(which was very thorough) was\nmade of blood, heart, teeth, mouth, throat, etc., and in all cases negative results were\nfound, that is, there is not the slightest indication of any injury to health or body\narising out of their vocation. Many of these employees have been constantly employed\n-2-\nat the same work since 1916. Some of our staff in London have been employed at\nthis work since early in 1914.\nWe have & letter to the effect that Dr. Flinn of Columbia University is\nmaking a thorough investigation of the industry, and that it is his desire to collect\nall information that he can about employees doing similar work, and in this connection\nwe have received a request to have tests made in respect to our employees engaged on\nthis work, that is, we have been requested to have a reputable Pathologist take a drop\nof blood from the lobe of the ear, and to have red and white blood counts made from\nsame, and slides, to enable him to make differential counts.\nAs you have indicated by your call your interest in this work, we thought\nyou might like to make this further test or recommend to us a Pathologist who would\ndo it for us.\nYours faithfully,\nINGERSOLL WATCH COMPANY, Ltd.\nESD.GEM"
}