Brilliant chemist and physicist Marie Curie, the first female to earn a Nobel Prize and the first person to be honored twice by the Nobel Committee, opened up a whole new area of study with her discoveries and application of radiation. A Polish native working in France, Curie understood that her work could have the potential to help mankind. In this newly colorized photo dating to the end of World War I, she and her daughter Irene are instructing a group of American soldiers who were lingering in France while awaiting transport back home to the United States.
Marie Curie and her daughter, Irene, taught American soldiers to be radiology assistants in 1919. (duriez colorization)
Marie Curie’s work in radiology not only helped to unlock the secret working of atoms, but it ushered in a whole new field of medicine and popularized the study of radiology. As this colorized photograph from 1919 shows, Curie’s work extended to the war effort, helping soldiers serving in World War I. She even devoted an extra year after the war ended to instruct others, including the group of American soldiers seen here, about radiology.
The Medical Impact of Marie Curie’s Discoveries
Much of Curie's work was applicable to the medical field. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Marie Curie applied her studies of radium and X-rays to the field of medicine. Through a series of experiments, she proved that radium could be used to treat various forms of cancer, including leukemia, although it was not without a degree of risks. Radiation is still used to treat cancer patients today. Curie did not devote her studies to X-rays, nor did she discover that X-rays could be used to peer into the human body. She did, however, help to bring portable X-ray machines into war. They were called Little Curies.
Little Curies
Little Curies were mobile X-ray machines used during WWI. (glogster.com)
Marie Curie knew enough about X-rays – she taught several classes on the subject at the Sorbonne in Paris – to know that X-ray technology for diagnostic purposes could be instrumental in aiding the war effort. At the start of World War I, Curie spent a few hours of her time collecting all the X-ray equipment in the various labs on the Sorbonne campus. She helped to create moving X-ray vehicles that could be driven close to the battlefields. The mobile X-ray units, or Little Curies as they came to be known, allowed frontline doctors to locate and remove bullets and shrapnel from wounded soldiers to stabilize them and to make surgeries quicker and more effective. With an X-ray machine so close to the action, wounded soldiers no longer had to be transported across great distances for treatment.
No Royalties or Compensation … And Almost No Medals
Neither Pierre nor Marie Curie wanted to profit from their discoveries. (mariecurie.org.uk)
Marie Curie never received monetary compensation or royalties from her medical contributions. Early on in her career, she and her husband Pierre Curie decided not to monetize their discoveries by applying for patents. Instead, they wanted their work to be beneficial and accessible to all people. During World War I, the citizens of France were asked to donate their gold and silver to help fund the war effort. Marie Curie stepped up to the government’s request and offered to hand over her two Nobel medals. The French government and the French National Bank were touched by her offer, but kindly refused to take the hard-earned and historic medals away from Curie. Curie found another way to help with the war effort. She took the cash prize awarded to her by the Nobel committee and used the money to purchase war bonds.
Radiology Services
Curie founded the Radium Institute to train radiology assistants. (nobelprize.org)
Marie Curie’s effort to establish the Radium Institute in Paris was put on hold by World War I. Despite this, Curie moved forward in her studies and in her goal of training others to apply radiation therapy in medicine. She recruited her first radiology assistant, her 17-year-old daughter, Irene, herself a brilliant student and scientist. With twentysome Little Curies tooling around the battlefields of Europe and another 200 units permanently placed in hospitals, Curie knew she needed to train more people to operate the equipment. It was more than she and Irene could do alone. Curie began to offer training courses to help women become radiology assistants.
Training American Soldiers
The original black and white photo of the colorized pic at the start of this article, showing Marie and Irene Curie training American servicemen in 1919. Source: Wikimedia Commons
As this 1919 colorized photograph shows, Marie Curie extended her instructions beyond the end of World War I to include a group of American soldiers who were lingering in France while awaiting transport back home to the United States. The soldiers seized the opportunity to learn how to be radiology assistants directly from Marie Curie and her daughter, Irene. That same year, Marie Curie published a book detailing her wartime efforts titled Radiology in War. Once Curie’s Radium Institute finally opened, she dedicated the rest of her life to studies in radiation and in training others.
Colorized by Frederic Duriez, flickr.com/105862585@N04
The image at the top of this post was colorized by Frederic Duriez, a French collector and colorizer of historical photos. You can see more of his work on his Flickr page.
