The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women

World War I ends, and many of the workers marry and leave the factory. Production continues to increase as the company transitions towards consumer products. The company trademarks the paint, called Undark, and experiments with its composition by using a cheaper isotope of radium called mesothorium. They also set up in-house studios for watch manufacturers, which reduces the workforce of dial-painters further. The company is having trouble with its residential location in Orange, as neighbors complain of the factory’s fumes.

Painters Katherine Schaub, Grace Fryer, and Helen Quinlan leave the factory and take jobs in offices, enjoying the change of pace. Meanwhile, Albina Maggia marries, and her younger sister Mollie moves into a boarding house in Orange while retaining work at the factory. Some of the workers, however, begin to feel chronically tired and ill. Radium is not suspected, however, as the radium craze continues spurred by a visit from Marie Curie.

In the summer of 1921, von Sochocky is ousted from the company when his co-founder, George Willis, sells a large share to treasurer Roeder, who then ousts both Willis and von Sochocky in a corporate takeover.