The Dark Glow of Radium

The craze for radiation and its victims

Eben Byers had it all. He was the son of a Gilded Age industrialist, raised in luxury and educated at the country’s finest schools. He was an excellent athlete; he’s a winner of the U.S. Amateur Golf Championship, on a list with Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods. He took over his dad’s iron factory and established himself on the New York social scene during the Roaring Twenties. He owned stables for his racehorses in both England and the United States. He had enough money to weather the onset of the Great Depression in style, moving between his homes in Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island, and South Carolina.

But one thing bothered this young man who had it all. In 1927, at age 47, he had been on a train home from the Harvard-Yale football game (Byers was a Yalie), drinking with some friends. He tumbled out of the sleeping berth in his private car and landed on his shoulder. The pain wouldn’t go away, and it began to get in the way of golf and the other pleasures in his l…