Current News Archive

by Joel O. Lubenau and Edward R. Landa

More than a hundred years ago, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, based enterprise, Standard Chemical Company, became the first American company to produce radium. In fact, it produced more radium than any other in the world. In 1921, Marie Curie, codiscoverer of the element, received a gift of one gram of radium from the Women of America costing $100,000. It was made by the company and, after it was presented to her by President Harding at the White House, she travelled to western Pennsylvania to visit the company's plants. The company was founded by two brothers, James J. and Joseph M. Flannery, undertakers-turned-industrialists.

Radium City, A History of America's First Nuclear Industry, by Joel O. Lubenau and Edward R. Landa, is the story of how the brothers utilized science, technology, engineering, and medicine in an innovative commercial enterprise to produce and promote radium for medical purposes. It is an account of the first use of radioactive material in medicine, the role of scientific and medical research to promote its utilization, the effects of radiation on worker health and the environment, and the government's role in these matters. It is about a time when Pittsburgh was—briefly—nicknamed "Radium City."

The Senator John Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh's oldest and largest historical organization dedicated to preserving and interpreting regional history, has posted the book in PDF format on its website and it may be downloaded at no cost.