Recently, the Horological Society of New York – America’s oldest watchmaking guild – announced a new scholarship that offers financial aid for watchmaking school to women. With an end-goal to help educate all students wishing to learn watchmaking, the HSYN has led the charge with a host of different scholarships. This one geared for women, though, has so many layers of light to it that it is worth a closer look.
To begin with, the scholarship is named for Grace Fryer (the Grace Fryer Scholarship for Female Watchmaking Students), a leader of the cause to fight for the rights of the group of women who, in the 1920’s, painted radium onto watch dials and later died horrible deaths. Referred to as the Radium Girls, these young women worked painting dials in factories in Illinois and New Jersey – regularly licking the tips of their brushes before painting each numeral to ensure a smooth line. Little did they know the steps they were encouraged to take meant that they were ingesting poison with horrifying side effects and even death. It was Grace Fryer, a New Jersey dial painter, who led the long, painstaking fight against the company in an effort to get them to acknowledge that the element was poisonous and to issue compensation for the fallen women. Her fight and their plight on the journey to bringing light to watch dials became a national story.
Their brave fight not only won the lawsuit against U.S. Radium Corporation, but also - and more importantly – catapulted workplace safety regulations around radioactive materials to new levels. Eventually the factory sites were shut down and new rules were enacted. The last Radium Girl, Mae Keane, had told National Public Radio that she couldn’t stand the gritty taste of the material, refused to lick the brushes, and left after only a few days on the job. Her decision saved her life. She lived to be 107 years old, passing away about eight years ago. Today movies and documentaries have been made about the individual women who suffered greatly.
Since that time -- when scientists knew that ingesting radium was poisonous, but the workers – each of whom was paid about five cents per dial and painted about 200 dials a day – did not know, the watch industry has come a long way. With their story coming to the forefront, American’s were stricken.
The watch industry began investigating new ways to light up dials. Eventually, Super-LumiNova came into being and offered not only a non-poisonous luminosity, but also gave watch makers a choice of colors. Today, most watch brands prefer Super-LumiNova coating for their glow. Other methods include tritium elements encased in glass tubes and applied to dials for extreme luminosity under water. Just a handful or two of brands turn to this method. By naming the women’s scholarship after Grace Flyer, the HSNY furthers the story of the Radium Girls, acknowledging their plight and offering transparency about one of the darkest times in American watchmaking. It also raises the awareness of the concept of women and watches – a growing segment of our global watch community today. There could not have been a more apt name for this valuable financial aid. Scholarship applications are being accepted until March 1, 2022.
