Letters Sent to Dr. Herman Schlundt, October 30, 1930

October 30th,1930. Dr. Herman Schlundt, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo. Dear Dr. Schlundt: The following is a copy of an article which appeared in the New York Tirles newspaper on October 27th: " RECOVERS RADIUM OFF WATCH DIALS e The only known factory in the United States for refining of radium from the paint off luminous dials of old watches and clocks has been started by chemists at the University of Missouri, and a report from the university states that already several thousand dollars worth of the element has been recovered by the operations. Companies ship watch-dial paint to the laboratory, which is able to extract about .01 of an ounce of radium from several hundred pounds of paint. The average watch dial has 10 to 15 cents worth of radium in the luminous paint. The element itself is worth about $2,000,000 andeunce. 11 At the time of reading this article I did not react any too favozably to this type of publicity, not from the view- point of the University of Missouri, but from that of the United States Radium Corp. There are several reasons for this reaction - one or two of which I will mention. In the first place we have lead the clock companies to believe that we are the only peóple equipped to do this type of work, and have up to this year reclaimed the material ourselves. While it may not be detrimental to our interests for the clock companies to know that the work is being done elsewhere, still we don't believe there is anything to be gained: Secondly, the articles state that the average watch dial has 10 to 15 cents worth of radium - a fact although true in some instances, is one which there is no point in advising the general public of. In this mornings mail this article was called to our attention by one of the clock companies, and just what they had in mind we, of course, do not know, but presume that they are wonder- ing what it is all about. It is our understanding that this arrange- ment was more or less a confidential one. Sincerely yours, Vice President. HHBarker:RH