In the lead up to the 1925 Legislative session, the morning paper published a humorous moment in regional jockeying and health fads.
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| December 12th, 1924 |
100 years ago the morning paper announced "radium water will be tried out....This water is said to act as a preventative for goiter, cancer and whatever ails a person." It was a third option besides Salem tapwater from the Willamette and Portland area Bull Run mountain water. Between local pride and likely very real differences in taste, apparently a significant number of people did not like Salem water, which at this time still came from the gravel beds at Minto Island.
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| October 23rd, 1924 |
Radium was newly popular as a miracle drug. But it may have achieved quite the opposite. Or, perhaps it is better to say, it could be effective and helped usher people closer to the "door of the great unknown."
There were at least two products advertised in the paper at this time. One product was the "Radio-Active Solar Pad," which sent "the Radio-Active Rays continuously into your system." Another was the "Radium Jar," which "reinvigorates" and "corrects drinking water...affording the body its normal supply of this natural element of water."
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| December 26th, 1924 |
A museum associated with Oak Ridge has a long note with pictures on the Revigator Radium Jar as well as a nice selection of "radioactive quack cures." Wikipedia also has a note. One study cited suggests contamination from arsenic and lead might have been more harmful to users of the jars than any radiation itself. There were also instances of things manufactured without any radioactive material, but priced as if they did. The quackery and scam came in multiple forms.
Maybe in 1925 we'll find out more about competitive drinking water positioning at the Legislature, but it probably fades into the background.
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