Pre-Show Activity: Process Drama

U.S. Radium Corporation – Orange, NJ – 1917

• Most dial painters working in the factory start work at 15 years-old
• They left school for work with the prospect of earning a penny and a half per dial (250 dials a day per person = $3.75 per day)
• The paint the workers used was called Undark. The paint contained radium, a recently discovered radioactive element, which would glow in the dark.
• Initially, glow in the dark watch faces were one of many popular products that used radium. As the United States entered World War I, glow in the dark dials became important tools for the military.
• The dials the women painted were very small. As such, they had to continuously moisten the tip of their paintbrushes. The best way to do this was to lick the paintbrush and use the lips to create sharp point. This was called, ‘lip-pointing.’
• Radium exposure made the women glow in the dark. They playfully painted their nails, teeth, and cheeks with the luminous paint.
• The corporation insisted that the paint was harmless.

• Download the Radium Girls Process Drama Fact Sheet PDF