1/28/2024 0 Comments Radium marie curieThe curriculum included theoretical instruction about the physics of electricity and X-rays as well as practical lessons in anatomy and photographic processing. She recruited 20 women for the first training course, which she taught along with her daughter Irene, a future Nobel Prize winner herself. But the cars were useless without trained X-ray operators, so Curie started to train women volunteers. Soon she had 20, which she outfitted with X-ray equipment. So Curie exploited her scientific clout to ask wealthy Parisian women to donate vehicles. This philanthropic organization gave her the money needed to produce the first car, which ended up playing an important role in treating the wounded at the Battle of Marne in 1914 – a major Allied victory that kept the Germans from entering Paris. Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Estampes et photographieįrustrated by delays in getting funding from the French military, Curie approached the Union of Women of France. One of Curie’s mobile units used by the French Army. The petroleum-powered car engine could thus provide the required electricity. Curie solved that problem by incorporating a dynamo – a type of electrical generator – into the car’s design. One major obstacle was the need for electrical power to produce the X-rays. Curie’s solution was to invent the first “radiological car” – a vehicle containing an X-ray machine and photographic darkroom equipment – which could be driven right up to the battlefield where army surgeons could use X-rays to guide their surgeries. As I describe in my book “Strange Glow: The Story of Radiation,” almost immediately after their discovery, physicians began using X-rays to image patients’ bones and find foreign objects – like bullets.īut at the start of the war, X-ray machines were still found only in city hospitals, far from the battlefields where wounded troops were being treated. X-rays, a type of electromagnetic radiation, had been discovered in 1895 by Curie’s fellow Nobel laureate, Wilhelm Roentgen. But just how could a middle-aged woman do that? She decided to redirect her scientific skills toward the war effort not to make weapons, but to save lives. Rather than flee the turmoil, she decided to join in the fight. With the subject of her life’s work hidden far away, she now needed something else to do. She then returned to Paris, confident that she would reclaim her radium after France had won the war. So she gathered her entire stock of radium, put it in a lead-lined container, transported it by train to Bordeaux – 375 miles away from Paris – and left it in a safety deposit box at a local bank. She knew her scientific research needed to be put on hold. Her radium was in hiding and she was at war.įor Curie, the war started in early 1914, as German troops headed toward her hometown of Paris. In fact, a visitor to her Paris laboratory 100 years ago would not have found either her or her radium on the premises. (She actually won two.)īut few will know she was also a major hero of World War I. (She actually discovered the radioisotopes radium and polonium.) Some might also know that she was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. Push further and ask what she did, and they might say it was something related to radioactivity. Ask people to name the most famous historical woman of science and their answer will likely be: Madame Marie Curie.
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