Radioluminescent Buttons (ca. 1930s)

What a clever idea, glow-in-the-dark buttons! Easy to find when the lights are dim and you are in a hurry! Just kidding. Judging from the construction, it looks like they were intended to be purely decorative. As you might expect, the radioactive material is radium-226. The assigned date of the 1930s is pure speculation.

Donated by Don Thompson and Ed Tupin of the Public Health Service.