January 02, 2008

Radiation in the home

Radiation CookeryVia Bad Science, I saw recently a now-defunct funhigh.com blog post 10 Radioactive Products Used In Everyday Life!!!??, which showcased a selection of curious and dangerous products from days when we were more naive about radioactivity. Other examples are easy to find online: snake oil remedies such as Radithor (which famously killed Eben M Byers) and similar quack cures, commonly infusing water with radium.
      Not all were actually radioactive; some such as Zoé, le soda atomique "which gives you infinite energy as with an atomic pile" just used terms associated with radiation for the cachet. The Radiation Cookery Book from around 1934 looks to be an example. It didn't involve cooking with radiation, just gas, but it's an example of a product from an era when the term wasn't considered bad PR as the name of a flagship range of British cookers (the first to feature "Regulo" thermostatic control - see the Radiation 'New World' H16 gas cooker c 1923).

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