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Page 4A — TUESDAY, July 16, 2013 Columbia missourian TUESDAY, July 16, 2013 — Page 5A

life & legacy of Herman scHlundt

your firm to the best of my ability.” ratory of , who won a in New York about 1931 to test two women who had This kind of arrangement seems to have been and for her work on radioac- worked at the Radium Corp. factory in the late against the chemistry department’s rules at the tivity. Curie wrote a thank you letter to Schlundt 1910s, and he published a report of his work there. time. A set of university policies the department through Miner. “The two girls, who after a lapse of nearly 12 recommended to the university’s executive boards “I will soon receive the preparation of Radiotho- years, are still radioactive, present cases of more in 1916 forbade faculty from using university rium, which Mr. Pr. Schlundt offered to prepare in than passing interest, inasmuch as they stand as Schlundt risked health for research laboratories, equipment or materials for commer- his laboratory,” Curie wrote to Miner in French. striking examples of the tolerance of living per- cial activities without the consent of the dean or “I would ask you to thank Mr. Pr. Schlundt on my sons for radium,” he wrote. SchLunDT from page 1A The company made mantles for gas lanterns, a department chair. behalf.” crucial item before the rise of electricity. Miner It could have helped that Schlundt was chair Curie’s letter came in 1930 and marks the height Declining health was one of the who perfected the use of of the chemistry department from 1910 until of Schlundt’s prominence in his field. But like Schlundt proved he was willing to subject him- The making of a physical another radioactive metal, thorium, which glows his death in 1937, according to a history of the many researchers who dealt too carelessly with self to the same risks he had exposed others to. He Schlundt was born in 1869 in Two Rivers, Wis., in a gas flame. chemistry department by former radioactive materials, his work drank water spiked with a known dose of radium and completed his undergraduate work at the Uni- The process of extracting thorium from its MU chemistry professor Dorothy took a deadly toll on his health. to find out how quickly it would stop showing up versity of Wisconsin. source material, monazite sand, left tons of radio- Nightingale. In the decades of research and in his urine. “As high as 91 percent of the radium In 1899, he traveled to the University of Leipzig active sludge. Miner wanted to find a way to turn Plus, he doled out favors with One of Schlundt’s industrial refining at MU, Schlun- taken was eliminated during the first four days in to work in the laboratory of Wilhelm this waste product into cash, and he needed a the the same enthusiasm as he dt, his colleagues and his students after drinking the radioactive water,” he wrote in Ostwald, a pioneering physical chemist. Accord- radium-refining expert to help the company profit doled out radium. He was con- early experiments was had all been exposed to to danger- his report to the Public Health Service. ing to science historian John W. Servos, Ostwald is from its waste materials. In 1917, the U.S. Bureau stantly finding someone a job, testing water from ous levels of radiation. When he returned to Columbia, he turned his often listed with Swedish -turned-chemist of Mines helped Miner locate Schlundt, most likely answering those who wrote to From cure to killer attention to health hazards. In his letter to Walter Svante Arrhenius and Dutch chemist Jacobus through Schlundt’s friend Lind. him with chemistry questions and one of the university's Williams, he described some of his health studies Henricus van ‘t Hoff, Jr. as a father of physical Schlundt soon realized that the process he used offering advice on how to improve Radiation poisoning became a in the early 1930s. He published a paper in the chemistry. to extract radium from ores could easily be modi- chemistry education at rural high deep wells for national health scare in the early Journal of Industrial Hygiene in 1931 titled, “Dan- In his lab, Ostwald taught his students to apply fied to extract an isotope of radium, radium-228, schools and colleges. He was, in radioactivity. It tested 1930s, when press coverage of a gers in Refining Radioactive Substances.” the principles of physics, such as energy, to basic from Welsbach’s industrial waste. He called this many ways, a model citizen. lawsuit against a chemical com- “Our first study of this problem indicates that units of matter. In addition to Schlundt, more than isotope “mesothorium.” In one of his many letters Schlundt’s business arrange- positive. Schlundt then pany by factory workers who had the refining operations may be conducted without 40 Americans were drawn to his lab from the to Miner, Schlundt described them both as “meso- ments also earned the chemis- been exposed to radium devel- hazard when proper safety measures which we 1890s to the early 1900s. thorium rooters.” try department free equipment expanded his search oped into the “Radium Girls” have introduced are followed by the workers in the As a German-American from a Midwestern His radium-228 research probably contributed and supplies. When he wrote in for radiation to hot scandal. One of radium’s uses was refining laboratory,” he wrote. town, Schlundt differed from most of these chem- most to the lasting radioactivity in Pickard Hall the early 1930s to then-president in painting watch dials and gun By then, Schlundt had begun to suffer health ists, who came from English families in the North- because of the huge amount of radioactive waste Walter Williams asking for equip- springs and aquifers sights — the radioactivity would problems probably related to his research. In a east and Middle Atlantic. he needed to synthesize it. ment, Schlundt mentioned he had all across the country. make paint glow in the dark. 1933 letter, he complained of recurring bouts of After studying in Leipzig, most of this elite While the radium-228 refinery was in opera- sought financial support from The women had worked at the sleeping sickness. He developed severe encepha- group went on to become chemistry professors at tion, he was receiving shipments of thousands of private industry for most of his From 1906 to 1908, United States Radium Corp.’s fac- litis that year and spent much of the 1933-1934 top private universities in the U.S. Others became pounds of radioactive sludge from Welsbach and work. tory in East Orange, N.J., in the school year in the hospital, according to Nightin- leading government and industrial chemists. the Lindsay Light Co. in Chicago. This radioactive “For nearly twenty five years he tested the springs late 1910s and early 1920s, where gale’s history. When he returned in 1934, he had to Schlundt was one of the few who decided to teach waste ultimately contaminated the grounds of both the Chemistry department has in Yellowstone National they painted watch dials. Many cut his hours. at a public, land-grant university. companies, leading to their eventual listing as EPA conducted research work in the of them would lick the tips of He died of uremic poisoning, a result of kidney After earning his Ph.D. from the University of Superfund sites. new field of science, which has Park for the U.S. their tiny brushes into fine points, failure, in 1937. He was 68. Leipzig in 1901, Schlundt came to MU. At that An excerpt from Schlundt’s report on refining revolutionized the theories of the Geological Survey. ingesting toxic levels of radium, time, radioactivity was emerging as a subject for radium-228 from the waste materials shows how structure of matter,” Schlundt according to a report Schlundt Schlundt’s radioactive legacy intense scientific study, as well as a popular sci- much was required to produce a tiny amount of the wrote. “By far the major parts wrote for the U.S. Public Health No mention of Schlundt’s industrial refinery ence fad. radioactive substance. of the expensive material needed Service. appeared in a two-part obituary published in Schlundt kept a collection of pamphlets and “Up to the present time, about sixteen hundred for these investigations has been Papers warning of the dangers the Missourian in 1937. It referred to him as an newspaper articles throughout his career that Courtesy of University Archives (C:6/17/1) (1,600) pounds of the original material have been loaned or donated by private individuals or firms.” of handling radium began appearing in scientific authority on radioactivity who also found time to advertised pseudo-scientific gimmicks to those Equipment used for extracting and refining radium from carnotite ores once stood in Pickard Hall. This photo was originally processed,” Schlundt wrote. This yielded only 86 Friendship pays off journals in the 1910s and early 1920s. Many of be involved in scientific fraternities, professional seeking miracle cures. The collection provides a published in a 1923 MU research bulletin, written by Howard Barker and Herman Schlundt. milligrams of radium-228 — or about .003 ounces, them were published in the French Journal of chemistry societies, the Columbia Kiwanis Club glimpse into the radiation hype of the early 20th less than the weight of a sewing needle. His friendship with Harlan Miner of Welsbach Radiology, Electrology and Nuclear Medicine. One and the Columbia Red Cross. It noted his connec- Century. Schlundt ended up writing a pamphlet on radi- also allowed Schlundt to make high-profile dona- paper by Dr. Thomas Ordway titled “Occupational tion to Curie. um-228 that the U.S. Bureau of Mines published in tions of thorium-228 to prestigious laboratories in Injuries Due to Radium” appeared in the Journal It would be years before the university under- ‘Miracle cure’ In fact, throughout his long tenure at MU, he of his right thumb and index finger after years of 1921. It explained in detail how the material could the U.S. and Europe. He had discovered that he of the American Medical Association in 1916. stood the radioactive mess he left behind. Peter Radium, for example, was touted as a marvel received water samples from people still looking holding radium in his bare hands. be extracted and used. He continued the produce could draw this bonus material, then called radio- Radium Corp. collected many of these papers and Ashbrook, former director of the university’s of modern science, able to heal everything from to score a ’s endorsement of the healing The summer they spent together provided the the isotope for at least nine years after that, hon- thorium, from the same lantern mantle sludge he republished their abstracts in a book dated 1922. Environmental Health and Safety department, cancer to eczema. “Radium - The Magic Element!” power of their springs and wells. social connection that enabled Schlundt to get into ing the technique and sending the finished product used to refine radium-228. About 12 years after some of the dial plant work- explained the situation to the Nuclear Regula- trumpeted one pamphlet that advertised a device Eventually, Schlundt turned his attention to the refining business later. back to Miner. “To secure the radiothorium we must have the ers were exposed, they became tory Commission in a hearing called the Revigerator that was hyped as a way to radioactive metals. “The laboratory for refining of mesothorium has good will of Dr. Miner of the Welsbach Company, deathly ill. The radium they had in June 2011. irradiate drinking water. Golden partnership now been in operation for twelve years,” Schlundt as it is through his firm that we get our supply of accidentally eaten had lodged in Ashbrook told the commission An ad for a similar product, the Georadium Radium from ore In 1914, Schlundt took the work back with him wrote in 1931. “More than 3,600 milligrams of mesothorium,” he wrote to the would-be sponsor their bones. For some of them, the university has known about Drinking Apparatus, proclaimed: “To-day it is uni- He had gotten an introduction to radium refining to the university, partnering with a researcher high grade mesothorium...have been produced in 1922. it caused their jaws to rot away. We are not aware of anyone Pickard’s radiation since the versally conceded that the field of radium therapy in the summer of 1913 at the U.S. Bureau of Mines named Howard H. Barker, who had once pro- mainly by graduate students working under the One of his donations was sent to the Paris labo- According to environmen- late 1970s, when staff surveyed at once is the most intriguing, the most mysterious station in Denver. cessed ore commercially. direction of Dr. G.F. Breckenridge and the writer.” tal historians Bill Kovarik and having been harmed by the building and removed con- and potentially the most valuable scientific devel- The bureau was working on refining carnotite Schlundt persuaded several corporations and These 3,600 milligrams had a market price Mark Neuzil, five of the dial radiation in Pickard Hall.” taminants “where it was easy opment in the history of human achievement.” ore, a sandstone streaked with neon yellow crust individuals to send him donations of radium ore. of between $216,000 and $360,000 at the time, plant workers sued Radium to do so.” A news item declared that radium was capable, mined in western Colorado and eastern Utah. This Altogether, he received more than four tons of raw according to prices Schlundt quoted in his letters. Corp. for $250,000 each in 1927. Peter asHbrook Some of the radioactive left- if properly employed, of preventing people from ore was a vital source of radium for researchers ore. In today’s dollars, this would be about $3 billion to Newspapers went from trum- “Former director of the Environmental Health overs were behind walls and and Safety department at MU growing old. all across the world. Radium was spread so thin throughout the ore $4 billion, depending on the years for which infla- peting the health benefits of under floors, making them hard Schlundt became “I spent last summer that a ton might only yield a couple hundred mil- tion is calculated. radium to playing up the pain to reach. They placed metal fascinated with radio- in Colorado in the U.S. ligrams, the weight of a small pill. That meant Most of the radium-228 returned to Welsbach, and suffering of the dying shields over some spots and active metals, which Bureau of Mines and radium and other radioactive metals were more sent in increments spread out over years. When women. restricted access to the attic and basement. They appear ordinary on the came in touch with the valuable than gold or diamonds in the late 1910s Schlundt left MU in 1921 to study for a year at the “Most of the news media dove in with a mixture placed dosimeters, which calculate the dose of surface but do emit I spent last summer in Colorado in the experiments in prog- and early 1920s. Cavendish Laboratory in England, his students of sensationalism and muckraking that acceler- radiation a person receives when exposed. powerful and mysteri- ress there on the sepa- According to “New International Yearbook: A kept up his work under Breckenridge’s supervi- ated and expanded the controversy,” Kovarik and “We are not aware of anyone having been ous energy. In 1904, U.S. Bureau of Mines and came in touch ration of radium from Compendium of the World’s Progress,” published sion. Breckenridge, another MU chemistry pro- Neuzil noted. harmed by radiation in Pickard Hall,” Ashbrook he began meeting with the low grade ores of in 1921, radium sold for $115 to $120 per milligram fessor, left the university shortly before Schlundt The publicity put pressure on Radium Corp. to said. another chemistry pro- with the experiments in progress there western Colorado,” that year. Gold cost about $21 per troy ounce — returned in 1922. settle. Later that year, the company agreed to pay Questions still remain about what if any harm fessor twice a week to on the separation of radium from the Schlundt wrote in a let- roughly 1.09 ounces — that year, according to the each woman $10,000 and $600 every year for the might have come to Schlundt’s students, the ones discuss the emerging ter dated 1914. National Mining Association. A milligram of gold Schlundt the businessman rest of their short lives. The company would also who faced direct exposure to more concentrated study of radioactive “low grade ores of western Colorado.” The method he would have been worth just 0.0007 cents. Throughout the 1920s, the refinery in Pickard pay their future medical expenses. radioactive materials. These men would have elements. They read all Herman scHlundt in a 1914 letter learned used a series of Schlundt and Barker developed techniques Hall churned out radium-228. Schlundt’s letters Radium Corp. had a marked connection to been in their 20s in the 1920s. Their lives were the papers on the sub- Radiation researcher messy, labor-intensive to improve the efficiency and reduce the cost indicate that Welsbach paid him as a consultant Schlundt. The company had loaned him ore during not nearly as well-documented as Schlundt’s. ject they could get their steps to convert a lot of of extracting radium. They finished their work during that time. his early experiments with Barker. By the time of Despite the danger he unwittingly posed to hands on. ore into tiny crystals of in 1922, the year American carnotite mining In a letter he wrote in 1922 to a company that the scandal, Barker had become a vice president his students, he won the admiration of MU’s “Scarcely two months passed by before we found radium bromide salts. stopped. A new source of cheap radium — $70 wanted to enlist his services, he said, “At the pres- of the company. student body. “The University freshman in need ourselves building electroscopes,” Schlundt wrote “Although a large quantity of ore must be worked per milligram, according to Schlundt — had been ent time I am serving in a consulting capacity for Before the factory workers’ case went to trial, of a firmer grasp on the life about him found in a 1931 letter to university president Walter Wil- upon to get a very small quantity of radium at discovered in the Belgian Congo, and American the Welsbach Company on Mesothorium. Since the Barker and Schlundt were writing back and forth, homesickness or discouragement considerable liams. present, still this ore to-day is the principal source mines couldn’t compete. process for treating mesothorium and radium are with Schlundt offering his opinion on dosage lev- lessened through the words of Dr. Schlundt,” the One of Schlundt’s early experiments was test- of radium,” he wrote. This development generated interest in alterna- nearly identical, it seems to me that I should not els. obituary stated. ing water from one of the university’s deep wells During Schlundt’s summer in Denver, he spent tive sources of radiation. accept any other consulting work with a compet- In 1928, the Surgeon General convened a meet- The final paragraphs of Schlundt’s obituary for radioactivity. It tested positive (and still does, time with Samuel Colville Lind, who became a ing firm unless I obtained consent of the Welsbach Courtesy of UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES (C:6/17/1) ing with officials from the Public Health Service reveal his greatest talent, the reason he was able though at a level below the Missouri Department of lifelong friend and colleague. Lind was a decade Mantles for lanterns Company.” In Pickard Hall, a researcher maneuvers a drum used in the and the National Consumers League. Those at the to accomplish everything he was in his life. Natural Resource’s maximum contaminant level). younger than Schlundt, Tennessee-born and also While Schlundt and Barker were working on But in a few months, he wrote, he might be able extraction of radium from carnotite ore. The first phase of conference agreed that two committees should “He possessed an unusually retentive memory Schlundt then expanded his search for radiation an alumnus of Ostwald’s laboratory in Leipzig. their radium refining method, Schlundt made con- to work something out with the second company. the procedure involved mixing the ore with in this drum. be set up to investigate workplace practices with for names and faces. His greatest hobby was to hot springs and aquifers all across the country. According to a biography of Lind by the National tact with a man whose influence would shape the “My contract with Welsbach expires early in Howard Barker and Herman Schlundt, a former MU chemistry radium. people.” From 1906 to 1908, he tested the springs in Yellow- Academies Press, the work they did was laborious rest of his own career — Harlan S. Miner with the July,” Schlundt wrote. “I shall then be free I hope professor, published this photo along with the results of their Schlundt was placed on one of the committees to Supervising editor is Jeanne Abbott: abbottjm@ stone National Park for the U.S. Geological Survey. and dangerous. Lind ended up burning away half Welsbach Co. in New Jersey. and will stand ready to cooperate with you and work in a 1923 research bulletin. do research on some of the women. He traveled to missouri.edu, 882-5741. Chronology: 1922 1927 ca. 1930 Schlundt returns to Columbia and Former workers at U.S. Schlundt makes 1933 1899-1901 1910s-early 1920s 1914-1922 Late 1970s- Schlundt studies in the continues refining Welsbach Co.’s waste Radium Corp.’s watch dial high-profile Schlundt’s early 2000s Radiation Papers warning of the Schlundt returns health begins in his laboratory until around 1930. plant in Orange, N.J., sue the donations of laboratory of Wilhelm to MU and takes The university continues to 2009 May 2013 1903 1906-1908 dangers of working with Welsbach pays Schlundt as a consultant company after experiencing thorium-228 to to decline. He Ostwald at the University the radium 1976 monitor radiation in the building MU notifies the MU announces Marie Curie, Schlundt tests radium begin to appear for at least part of that time. radium poisoning. The several major suffers bouts of Leipzig. Ostwald is refining work 1918 The and attempts to restrict access commission Pickard’s and Yellowstone in scientific journals, workers were painting watch laboratories in the of sleeping often listed with Swedish back with him. Schlundt begins refining industrial The price of radium goes from $115 to Museum to certain areas in its basement that the new closure. Pickard National Park’s including the French dials with radium-infused U.S. and Europe. sickness. research in physicist-turned-chemist He publishes waste for the Welsbach Co., $120 a milligram to $70 a milligram of Art and attics. Ashbrook told the regulations apply must be empty are awarded a hot springs for Journal of Radiology, glow-in-the-dark paint. Many One of them is Severe Svante Arrhenius and his results in harvesting radium-228 and after a new source of ore is discovered History and commission in 2011 that over to Pickard Hall. by the end of Nobel Prize in radiation at the Nuclear Medicine and of them would lick the tips Marie Curie's in encephalitis Dutch chemist Jacobus a university thorium-228. Schlundt, his fellow in the Belgian Congo. American Archaeology the years, his office “took The commission December so physics for the request of the Electrology and the Journal of their tiny brushes into fine France. Curie writes keeps him in Henricus van ‘t Hoff Jr. research bulletin professors and their graduate ore mining stops. Schlundt focuses opens in the additional steps to reduce asks MU to a new round of discovery of U.S. Geological of the American Medical points, ingesting toxic levels to Schlundt through the hospital for as a father of physical in 1923. students refine waste for the his refining process on Welsbach’s renovated exposures even more to be...as submit a two-year testing can be Pickard Hall radioactivity. Survey. Association. of radium. Miner thanking him. a year. chemistry. company for the next 12 years. industrial waste. Pickard Hall. low as reasonably achievable.” cleanup plan. conducted.

1869 1902 1905 1910 1913 1917 1921 1922-1930 1928 ca. 1931 1937 Late 1970s 2007 2011 The university Herman Schlundt is Albert Einstein Schlundt Schlundt gets an The U.S. Bureau Schlundt travels to Graduate students Muckraking newspaper Schlundt travels to Schlundt University officials become aware of New regulations take effect asks the Schlundt hired to teach publishes becomes introduction to of Mines, England for a year of working under coverage feeds the New York to test dies of lingering radiation in the building. At that require the Nuclear commission is born chemistry at MU. his paper chemistry radium refining at probably through study at the Cavendish Schlundt’s ‘Radium Girls’ scandal. two women who uremic a hearing in 2011, former director of Regulatory Commission to for an in Two on special department the U.S. Bureau of Lind, introduces Laboratory. The refining direction churn Radium Corp. settles had worked at poisoning, MU’s Office of Environmental Health regulate sites with naturally indefinite Rivers, relativity and chair, a Mines station in Schlundt to continues under the out 3,600 with the dial plant the Radium Corp. a result and Safety Peter Ashbrook told the occurring radioactive extension on Wis. his famous position he Denver. He befriends Harlan S. direction of another milligrams of workers, paying them factory in the late of kidney Nuclear Regulatory Commission that materials. They requires the clean-up equation, holds until Samuel Colville Lind, Miner with the chemistry professor. radium-228. Most $10,000 and $600 a 1910s. He drinks failure. after discovering the radiation, MU staff these sites to be taken off timeline. The E = mc2. his death in a chemist for the Welsbach Co. of it returns to year for the rest of their water spiked with a removed contamination in areas within the commission’s list of commission 1937. bureau. Lind was Welsbach Co. short lives. The Surgeon known quantity of reach and place shields over patches sites to monitor. The official denies the another alumnus General places Schlundt radium to see when of radioactivity. Some contamination term is “decommissioning.” on a committee to request. Courtesy of UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES (C:6/17/1) of Ostwald’s lab it stops showing up remains behind walls and beneath Former MU chemistry department chair Herman who would become investigate the hazards in his urine. floors. They place exposure-measuring Schlundt poses in this undated photograph, Schlundt’s lifelong of working with radium. dosimeters in the building, which return taken sometime between 1902 and 1937. colleague. low readings.