The Golden Age, June 23, 1920 , page 607 [!! Can?t get away from that number!! --VM44] Comment on the Foregoing [article by J.W. Coolidge, M.D., Life and The Life-Giver] By J. F. Rutherford The article by Dr. Coolidge concerning the application of radium as a vital force is interesting to me. About a year ago I suffered from a severe case of pleuro-pneumonia, and Dr. Coolidge was my physician. During the period of convalescence he provided me with a radio-solar pad, or belt, which I wore with great profit to myself. I have since recommended it to others, who have likewise benefited by it. This pad I understand is manufactured by the Radium Appliance Company of Los Angeles,California, and the process of manufacture is to diffuse through a mass of paste by the power of electricity a small quantity of radium, and out of this the pad is manufactured. If the pad is held in the sunlight for five minutes, it can be taken into a dark room and will photograph itself. In other words, it absorbs the energy of the sun and transmits that to the human system. I believe that this will prove very beneficial to humanity; and so recognizing it, I am glad to call attention to it.
Radium Appliance Co. of Los Angeles offered, by mail, Degnen's Radio-Active Solar Pad, "worn on the back by day and over the stomach at night," its ad instructed. "Thousands have written us that has healed them of Neuritis, Rheumatism, High Blood Pressure, Constipation, Nervous Prostration, Hear, Lungs, Liver, Kidney and Bladder trouble, etc." http://www.amarillonet.com/stories/090199/fri_090199-28.shtml
Degnen's Standard Radioactive Solar Pad (1915-1930) M.L. Degnen, "the man who made this pad possible," has been associated with the development of the science of "radio-activity" since its inception. The knowledge thus gained has culminated in the "Radio-active Solar Pad," or so stated the literature of the Radium Appliance Company of Los Angeles. This device was somewhat unusual in that it was supposed to be charged in sunlight prior to use. The manufacturer explained that its "radio-activity is further increased by exposing the pad to sunlight" and "when applied to the body, the pad immediately begins to discharge this energy into the system, sending the lifegiving current through the blood and nervous system." Degnen's Radio-Active Solar Pad seems to have been produced in two versions: the one shown in the top photo that contains purified radium, and the one in the lower photograph that contains a relatively small amount of uranium ore. The manufacturer's literature that I have seen only refers to the use of radium. I suspect that the company might have switched to uranium sometime around 1930. If true, a switch might have been made because the uranium would have been a less expensive alternative to radium. Another possible reason for a switch: radium was getting some bad press in the late 1920s due, in part, to the deaths of the radium dial painters. http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/quackcures/degnen.htm
