Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

michael scuffil wrote: One of its more curious features, which took me aback when I was passing through, is the Grand Radium Hotel, where you can take 'curative' radioactive baths; it's where the Curies got their material from.)

South Hams (Devon) saying about Londoners: "them be funny folk then furriners"..
I note that mme Curie died of radiation sickness.

sejintenej wrote:

michael scuffil wrote: One of its more curious features, which took me aback when I was passing through, is the Grand Radium Hotel, where you can take 'curative' radioactive baths; it's where the Curies got their material from.)

South Hams (Devon) saying about Londoners: "them be funny folk then furriners"..

I note that mme Curie died of radiation sickness.

Just goes to show how a little knowledge can be dangerous.

Just read that CH got burned out of Newgate Street in the Great Fire of London and had to be rehoused. I assume the present plaque is on the original site????????

I note that mme Curie died of radiation sickness.

It's not quite certain what she died of. About 20 years ago, she and her husband were exhumed from Père Lachaise cemetery and reburied in the Pantheon in Paris. However, before this was done, concerns were raised that her body would still be quite radioactive, and that the transfer process might therefore be unsafe. So when her grave was opened, readings were taken, and she was found to be not radioactive at all. If she had died of radiation sickness from the radium, she certainly would have been. It's now thought her radiation sickness resulted from heavy exposure to X-rays: she spent almost the whole of the First World War working as a radiographer in field-hospitals, where of course the shielding that would be normal today was non-existent. The symptoms of X-ray induced radiation sickness would be similar to those of radium-induced sickness, but X-rays don't make you radioactive.

Just read that CH got burned out of Newgate Street in the Great Fire of London and had to be rehoused. I assume the present plaque is on the original site????????

But they returned to the site after the fire. I don't think much of the school was burned; the kids were moved out for safety because it got very close. The old Greyfriars Church was destroyed, hence the Wren replacement. So the 'original' site was the one that remained until 1902.

michael scuffil wrote:I note that mme Curie died of radiation sickness.

It's not quite certain what she died of. About 20 years ago, she and her husband were exhumed from Père Lachaise cemetery and reburied in the Pantheon in Paris. However, before this was done, concerns were raised that her body would still be quite radioactive, and that the transfer process might therefore be unsafe. So when her grave was opened, readings were taken, and she was found to be not radioactive at all. If she had died of radiation sickness from the radium, she certainly would have been. It's now thought her radiation sickness resulted from heavy exposure to X-rays: she spent almost the whole of the First World War working as a radiographer in field-hospitals, where of course the shielding that would be normal today was non-existent. The symptoms of X-ray induced radiation sickness would be similar to those of radium-induced sickness, but X-rays don't make you radioactive.

Do you have a reference for her body not being radioactive? Most sources stat she was buried in a lead-lined coffin because of radioactivity. http://www.sciencealert.com/these-perso ... -500-years

Certainly her lab and notebooks are still potentially lethal.

There was a BBC TV programme about her some 2-3 years ago which contained an interview with the person commissioned to test the body. I was quoting what he said. (I have the programme on disc somewhere.)