Letters Received to Howard H. Barker [H.H. Barker], December 3, 1927

RECEIV. nf Minneanta DEC 5 1927 Schnol of Chemistry Minneapnila Dec. 3, 1927 A OFFICE OF THE DEAN 11/18/16 RABIUM LUMINOUS MATERIAL CORP. Dr. Howard H. Barker, United States Radium Corporation 535 Pearl Street, New York: My dear Barker; In reply to your letter of Dec. 1, I regret to learn that your damage suits have not been settled out of court. In regard to the anticipation of injury to persons painting watch dials, the first that I ever heard of such a thing were the stories that began to appear in the newspapers with reference to the reported experiences of your company. You will have these dates. They must have been subsequent to 1924. Prior to that time I should have thought that the small quantities and great dilutions which they were handling would not be dangerous. Our ex- perience with much larger quantities were never harmful as far as we knew. My only burns were accidental beta ray burns from very large and concentrated quan- tities of radium. I have been working around and with radium and had others around me doing the same almost continuously for more than twelve years with no bad results, though we did very little handling of Ra paints. With reference to especial danger from meso-thorium I have formed no opinion and would want to talk it over before forming one. I was planning to make a trip to Washington the week before Christmas and could arrange to come to New York for a day if you wished. If I were certain you would need me in Newark in January I would prefer to make one trip of the whole thing and could probably put off my Tashington trip until that time. However that is not essential at all. With best regards, sincerely yours, R.C. find