Sanitariums offering radioactive therapy throughout the country were popular in the early twentieth century.

When the therapuetic benefits of radiation were unknown, radioactive substances were used to treat almost every medical condition.

Radithor was a highly radioactive cureall manufactured and sold by William John Aloysius Bailey, a con artist in the late 1920’s. Eben M. Byers was a millionaire socialite who was the 1907 US Amateur Golf Champion and the Chairman of the AM Byers Iron Foundry. He was a handsome and dashing figure popular in all circles of society, though when chronic pain interfered with his golf, he began to take an interest in radithor for relief. Byers became the “poster boy” for radithor, and drank 1,400 bottles between 1927 and 1930. He subsequently developed cancer of his jaw and skull, marking the end of his life and the beginning of regulations regarding the sale of radioactive substances.

A number of radioactive jugs were offered for home use. The patient would fill the jug in the evening and drink the radioactive contents the next morning.

another radioactive container for the treatment of water

This small radioactive device could be hung in a jar of water if a radioactve jug was not available.

Radioactive condoms were supposed to have magical properties.