0:00:05 > 0:00:09The dawn of a new century and the reign of a new King, Edward VII,
0:00:09 > 0:00:10ushered in an age
0:00:10 > 0:00:13of dramatic scientific changes,
0:00:13 > 0:00:14stunning new inventions
0:00:14 > 0:00:17and groundbreaking discoveries.
0:00:19 > 0:00:23And it was in their homes that Edwardians experienced the full impact
0:00:23 > 0:00:26of this leap forward into modernity.
0:00:27 > 0:00:32It offered a brave new world, but these mod cons were all untried and untested,
0:00:32 > 0:00:36and soon turned the Edwardian home into a hazardous place to be.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41Absolutely lethal.
0:00:41 > 0:00:43She covered her face in poison.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51Vogue was advertising arsenic soap for that offending pimple.
0:00:51 > 0:00:53Products that were brilliant...
0:00:55 > 0:00:56..maybe not so brilliant...
0:00:57 > 0:00:59..and downright dangerous!
0:01:01 > 0:01:04Because they're so fine, they're easy to inhale when you breathe in,
0:01:04 > 0:01:07they can get deep into the lungs and they stick there.
0:01:07 > 0:01:09I'm going to search out these hidden killers...
0:01:10 > 0:01:12..and reveal how science both created them
0:01:12 > 0:01:15and then solved the problems they caused.
0:01:17 > 0:01:21Welcome to the perilous world of the real Edwardian home!
0:01:37 > 0:01:40This is a typical house of the Edwardian period.
0:01:56 > 0:02:02It not only looked more modern than the houses of the Victorians, it even sounded different.
0:02:02 > 0:02:03PHONE RINGS
0:02:03 > 0:02:06TYPEWRITER
0:02:06 > 0:02:09CAR STARTS
0:02:09 > 0:02:11SEWING MACHINE WHIRS
0:02:11 > 0:02:14Queen Victoria died in 1901.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17Her son Edward VII became King,
0:02:17 > 0:02:21and the era that bore his name began as the new century got underway.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24And it seemed as though a world of opportunity was opening up.
0:02:27 > 0:02:31HG Wells summed up the spirit of the age perfectly
0:02:31 > 0:02:37when he wrote that Queen Victoria like a great paperweight sat on men's minds
0:02:37 > 0:02:42and when she was removed their ideas blew all over the place haphazardly.
0:02:42 > 0:02:48In other words, her death created the perfect conditions for new ideas to flourish,
0:02:48 > 0:02:51and this of course had an impact on the home.
0:02:51 > 0:02:55In the first five years of Edward VII's reign,
0:02:55 > 0:02:58over 140,000 British patents were granted.
0:02:59 > 0:03:01# But if that's your blooming game
0:03:01 > 0:03:03# I intend to do the same
0:03:03 > 0:03:06# Cos a little of what you fancy does you good... #
0:03:07 > 0:03:13Like the Victorians before them the new Edwardian middle classes had the spare cash to purchase products
0:03:13 > 0:03:16that would make their home lives more comfortable.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23The most exciting new invention on the market was electricity.
0:03:24 > 0:03:28It would not only transform every room of the Edwardian house,
0:03:28 > 0:03:33but it would make possible a whole host of new domestic inventions and gadgets.
0:03:35 > 0:03:40If there's one thing we take for granted, it's that this works.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44But imagine how incredible it must have been when it was introduced,
0:03:44 > 0:03:51this clean invisible magical energy that transformed the Edwardian evening into day.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58So what problems could there possibly be?
0:04:00 > 0:04:04Electricity in our modern homes is subject to all kinds of regulations,
0:04:04 > 0:04:09but the unsuspecting Edwardian had no idea what damage it could do.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13When it was first invented, it was considered to be quite magical.
0:04:13 > 0:04:15It was clean of course
0:04:15 > 0:04:18and it was... I guess they thought it was safe,
0:04:18 > 0:04:20and it meant they could do things that they couldn't do before,
0:04:20 > 0:04:22they could put on a light at the turn of a switch.
0:04:22 > 0:04:26It completely transformed the amenities within the ordinary domestic house.
0:04:27 > 0:04:32It was in the late-19th century that the components needed for electrification
0:04:32 > 0:04:33began to be developed.
0:04:33 > 0:04:40The vital invention was made by both Joseph Swan in Britain and Thomas Edison in America,
0:04:40 > 0:04:42the incandescent light bulb.
0:04:43 > 0:04:45Street lights came first,
0:04:45 > 0:04:50and then, in the Edwardian period, individual companies began to produce electricity
0:04:50 > 0:04:52to offer to domestic households.
0:04:54 > 0:05:00Gas lighting and heating had become popular in Victorian times, but it was a dirty source.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04As well as being potentially explosive, it left a residue of grime.
0:05:04 > 0:05:08Electric light seemed to offer the perfect alternative.
0:05:09 > 0:05:11It might seem an obvious thing
0:05:11 > 0:05:14that electricity should replace gas,
0:05:14 > 0:05:15but at the time
0:05:15 > 0:05:20electricity companies and gas companies were very much in competition.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23People had just got used to gas lighting
0:05:23 > 0:05:25and now they're faced with new technology, something else
0:05:25 > 0:05:28which they've been told to sort of take on and adopt in their lives.
0:05:28 > 0:05:32This is instructions about how you'd use your Edison electric light,
0:05:32 > 0:05:38and it says, "Do not attempt to light with match. Simply turn key on wall by the door."
0:05:38 > 0:05:42It sounds quite bonkers to us today that you have to explain it in that way,
0:05:42 > 0:05:44we know how we operate our electricity,
0:05:44 > 0:05:47we know we go to the light switch, but then that wasn't so obvious.
0:05:48 > 0:05:53At the turn of the century, electricity was far more expensive than gas,
0:05:53 > 0:05:57but it was heavily marketed by the supply companies who could see the possibilities...
0:05:57 > 0:05:59and the profits.
0:06:00 > 0:06:05We get key figures like Lord and Lady Randolph Churchill choose to have it in their homes,
0:06:05 > 0:06:10and this is widely reported in the press, so it becomes more attractive
0:06:10 > 0:06:13and almost glamorous for some of the middle classes to take it on.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18The newspapers were full of the wonders of electricity.
0:06:18 > 0:06:24For example, the Dundee Courier in December 1906 praised its romantic story,
0:06:24 > 0:06:30and said that, "Its rapid advance is more wonderful than any tale of wild Arabian fiction."
0:06:30 > 0:06:33It seemed chic, modern and desirable.
0:06:33 > 0:06:38If you were a sophisticated urban up-to-date family,
0:06:38 > 0:06:41you needed electricity in your house, you needed electric lamps.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45And those who didn't have it were simply seen as behind the times,
0:06:45 > 0:06:48so if you really wanted to show off to your business associates
0:06:48 > 0:06:52that you were the right type of person, you brought in the electric light.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00And so gradually Edwardian homes began to be lit by electricity,
0:07:00 > 0:07:04but it was a completely new, little understood force,
0:07:04 > 0:07:08and electricity cables were just that, naked bare cables.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11One touch and you could be electrocuted.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16Early cases, the cables weren't actually insulated at all,
0:07:16 > 0:07:19they just run through wooden runners,
0:07:19 > 0:07:22and then they'd just be bare, running around the properties.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26When they did catch on to insulation, they used the wrong material.
0:07:26 > 0:07:28Originally they were made
0:07:28 > 0:07:31just lined in paper and lead,
0:07:31 > 0:07:35fantastic fire accelerant, brilliant!
0:07:35 > 0:07:38They even tried wrapping it in cloth, they wrapped it up in wood,
0:07:38 > 0:07:42they wrapped it in basically anything they thought that might stop the electricity getting through
0:07:42 > 0:07:45and somebody inadvertently touching it.
0:07:45 > 0:07:46And earthing,
0:07:46 > 0:07:52the ability to make a faulty circuit safe by re-directing it to the earth, simply didn't exist.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56There was no earth, there was nothing at all.
0:07:56 > 0:08:03So if you had a small child that could just run round and touch one of these things,
0:08:03 > 0:08:05it was absolutely lethal.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11Lethal or not, the fearless Edwardians kept inventing,
0:08:11 > 0:08:16and found the new power source could be used for all sorts of domestic appliances.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21Its full potential could be seen in the electric house,
0:08:21 > 0:08:28the centrepiece of the 1908 Manchester Electrical Exhibition, the Tomorrow's World of its day,
0:08:28 > 0:08:33and on display were all the must-have items for the ideal Edwardian home.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39One excited visitor wrote a postcard about their visit...
0:08:51 > 0:08:53What sort of items were available?
0:08:53 > 0:08:58A whole range of things that we see now and we find commonplace in our homes today,
0:08:58 > 0:09:01but also a whole other range of things which maybe we're not so familiar with.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04All sorts of weird and wonderful appliances appeared,
0:09:04 > 0:09:08some of which had not been seen before or since,
0:09:08 > 0:09:13as suppliers tried to generate a demand for electricity beyond the electric light.
0:09:14 > 0:09:15What's this?
0:09:15 > 0:09:17That's actually an early electric curling tong,
0:09:17 > 0:09:20and you just put your curling tong in there to heat up.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24And this must have been quite a breakthrough to have an electric iron for the first time?
0:09:24 > 0:09:28Up until now, irons had been heated on coal stoves.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31In many ways I guess that is quite a breakthrough,
0:09:31 > 0:09:35and one of the appliances that people probably were most fond of in the early days.
0:09:38 > 0:09:43A look at the magazines and papers of the time reveals a fundamental lack of understanding
0:09:43 > 0:09:47about how to use electricity safely even by some manufacturers.
0:09:48 > 0:09:55In the Evening Telegraph of December 1908, it recommended the use of an electric tablecloth,
0:09:55 > 0:10:01a device of which it says, "Up-to-date hostesses will not be long in taking advantage of."
0:10:01 > 0:10:04One of the most unusual items is probably this one here.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07This is a tablecloth, it's an illuminating tablecloth,
0:10:07 > 0:10:10the idea is that you turn it the other way round,
0:10:10 > 0:10:16so you'd have this side showing, and wired up inside here are just bare wire connectors.
0:10:16 > 0:10:22You'd lay it down, you'd cover it with your cloth, basically plug your lamp on the base.
0:10:22 > 0:10:26- Into the tablecloth? - Directly into the tablecloth.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29You're pronging through and making that connection.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32I can see that's quite fun, but presumably it's also really dangerous?
0:10:32 > 0:10:35- I mean, if you spilled something... - Yes, yes, extremely dangerous.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39Whoever in their right mind thought up putting a tablecloth
0:10:39 > 0:10:42which stores water and food and all the rest of it,
0:10:42 > 0:10:46and runs electricity through it is beyond me, but it was new.
0:10:46 > 0:10:51That's what you used to need to do, and it was sold and marketed as being the new technology,
0:10:51 > 0:10:53lamps that are on the table.
0:10:54 > 0:10:59Thankfully, despite the marketing, this electrical wonder did not catch on...
0:11:01 > 0:11:07They had the goods, but they didn't have the infrastructure we have today and here lay the problem.
0:11:07 > 0:11:12They would use the light socket to run all sorts of pieces of equipment, possibly even electric heaters.
0:11:12 > 0:11:16- From the wire going to the light? - That's right, yes.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18They would put an adaptor into the light socket,
0:11:18 > 0:11:21they would then run a bulb plus another piece of equipment off that.
0:11:21 > 0:11:23In extreme cases, they would add a number of adaptors
0:11:23 > 0:11:28and have a number of different sorts of pieces of equipment coming off the light circuit.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37And then you'd get this whole sort of cascade of adaptors coming out from the ceiling fitting,
0:11:37 > 0:11:41what we'd call a Christmas tree, leading to lots of different pieces of equipment.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44So, for example, people would be doing ironing off the lighting circuit,
0:11:44 > 0:11:47they would maybe have an electrical heater running off the lighting circuit.
0:11:48 > 0:11:54And, of course, every extra piece of equipment was adding an additional energy load to the system,
0:11:54 > 0:11:58which is why we would get overheating of the system and potential fires.
0:11:58 > 0:12:02Cos whenever they plugged lights in, or toasters or refrigerators,
0:12:02 > 0:12:04they used to overheat,
0:12:04 > 0:12:07and the current that would be running through the cable
0:12:07 > 0:12:10would start melting the cable and then this cable would catch fire.
0:12:15 > 0:12:21To demonstrate how quickly overloading can cause a fire, Martin applies a battery to wire wool.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25The battery is too high a voltage for the wire,
0:12:25 > 0:12:28mirroring what might have happened in the Edwardian home
0:12:28 > 0:12:32when extra appliances were added to the electric light socket.
0:12:34 > 0:12:39This overloading of one circuit is what caused fires in Edwardian homes.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49It wasn't safety regulated in the way ours is now.
0:12:49 > 0:12:51There were no consumer units,
0:12:51 > 0:12:55miniature circuit breakers or any of that safety equipment that we now rely on.
0:12:55 > 0:12:59Modern fuse boxes protect homes from this.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05As soon as the system becomes overloaded, it cuts out...
0:13:09 > 0:13:12..but back then the electricity would keep flowing.
0:13:12 > 0:13:15There'd be a fire in the house.
0:13:15 > 0:13:21And knowing your luck you'll be in bed when it happens, and there'd be no getting out.
0:13:23 > 0:13:29Although the Institution of Electrical Engineers issued its first Wiring Regulations in 1882,
0:13:29 > 0:13:31they were often ignored.
0:13:31 > 0:13:38Part of the problem was that initially electricity was sold by individual local companies,
0:13:38 > 0:13:43who each supplied a particular voltage of electricity to their local area,
0:13:43 > 0:13:49so an iron used at home in Manchester wouldn't be compatible with one in Liverpool.
0:13:49 > 0:13:55It was down to the individual generating company what voltage and what ampage
0:13:55 > 0:13:57they put the electricity into the properties,
0:13:57 > 0:14:02so even if you understood one system it didn't mean that if you went further down the road,
0:14:02 > 0:14:05and bought electricity from someone else it would be exactly the same.
0:14:08 > 0:14:13On its own and left alone, electricity isn't overly dangerous.
0:14:13 > 0:14:18It's when you bring in the human factor, that's when electricity becomes dangerous.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22There were countless stories in the newspapers
0:14:22 > 0:14:26of the many and varied ways people had managed unwittingly to electrocute themselves.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49Being electrocuted, the effects of that depend on several things.
0:14:49 > 0:14:54The current, the duration of the electric shock that you have,
0:14:54 > 0:14:56and also the voltage.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00If you have a very low current electric shock for a sufficient duration,
0:15:00 > 0:15:02it can affect the beating of the heart.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05If you disturb that electrical flow around the heart,
0:15:05 > 0:15:10each of the individual heart muscles can contract individually,
0:15:10 > 0:15:15and so there's no concerted effort and so no blood would be pumped around the body.
0:15:15 > 0:15:18So damaging the heart with an electric shock is particularly dangerous,
0:15:18 > 0:15:21and that can happen even at a quite low current.
0:15:26 > 0:15:32If you have a very high current, you typically get a burn where the electricity enters
0:15:32 > 0:15:37and possibly leaves the body, and that may cause instant death as it causes the heart to stop.
0:15:40 > 0:15:42Though slow to address the dangers of electricity,
0:15:42 > 0:15:49Edwardians credited it with all kinds of health-giving properties which led to some strange practices.
0:15:51 > 0:15:52What is that?
0:15:52 > 0:15:55- It's got a space-age element to it, hasn't it?- It does, doesn't it?
0:15:55 > 0:16:00It's well-used, it's an early sun-ray lamp, it was meant to encourage sort of good health.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03The theory was that this would make you healthier,
0:16:03 > 0:16:04and there are adverts from a bit later on
0:16:04 > 0:16:07where they show babies positioned in front of these.
0:16:12 > 0:16:18The therapeutic use of electricity also extended into the medical profession
0:16:18 > 0:16:22where it was applied to a range of physical and mental illnesses.
0:16:23 > 0:16:25Have you got any other surprising items?
0:16:25 > 0:16:28Yes, there are some surprising items.
0:16:28 > 0:16:33This is a fairly early massage machine, electric massage machine.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35It's a bit like a ray gun, I think, that one.
0:16:35 > 0:16:40It does look sort of like a ray gun, or a sort of microphone, you think Elvis.
0:16:40 > 0:16:42And this was for massage?
0:16:43 > 0:16:47Ostensibly for massage, it was often used for more intimate sort of purposes as well,
0:16:47 > 0:16:51- but it was sold as a massage machine. - Oh, that's what this is? Right!
0:16:51 > 0:16:52OK...
0:16:57 > 0:17:00Some of the things Edwardians got up to in their own homes
0:17:00 > 0:17:04revealed how little they understood this deadly force.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09To my amazement I even found an extraordinary headline in the Daily Mail.
0:17:09 > 0:17:14A man accidentally electrocuted himself during his daily beautifying routine.
0:17:16 > 0:17:18He was using an electrical gadget
0:17:18 > 0:17:24which was plugged in at the mains and was designed to enhance and inflate his pecs.
0:17:26 > 0:17:28A man's fatal vanity...
0:17:37 > 0:17:41Eventually, the Edwardians were given the option of a wall socket instead of the light,
0:17:41 > 0:17:44but this brought up another issue.
0:17:44 > 0:17:48At the time both the plug and the socket contained metal,
0:17:48 > 0:17:51which created a small spark when they came into contact.
0:17:57 > 0:18:02The spark is typical of any piece of equipment which is being plugged in or plugged out
0:18:02 > 0:18:07when the equipment is live, so as two pieces of metal come into contact or out of contact
0:18:07 > 0:18:10when they are live, then a spark will occur.
0:18:12 > 0:18:17As most Edwardian homes were still using a lot of gas which was prone to leaking,
0:18:17 > 0:18:21this small spark could be enough to cause a big explosion.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27Explosion just waiting to happen from the tiniest amount of gas,
0:18:27 > 0:18:32and your windows and doors and you would be on the street
0:18:32 > 0:18:36awaiting the undertaker, I would imagine!
0:18:39 > 0:18:43Over time, improvements were applied that lessened the dangers.
0:18:44 > 0:18:51It wasn't till 1908, 1909 that Edison came up with the idea of a rubber socket
0:18:51 > 0:18:58which went on to a plug which had a fuse in, which obviously saved any shocks when you were touching it.
0:18:58 > 0:19:03It saved any problems with insulating and it saved this problem of overheating.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11But with its varying currents, assortment of sockets and plugs,
0:19:11 > 0:19:16no earth or fuse box, Edwardian electricity was a dangerous business,
0:19:16 > 0:19:21especially as it was often installed and maintained by DIY enthusiasts.
0:19:23 > 0:19:25Anyone could really wire up their homes,
0:19:25 > 0:19:29so potentially you've got people not knowing what they were doing getting into big trouble.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32Even one of Edison's own friends killed himself,
0:19:32 > 0:19:35he electrocuted himself, and that's somebody who knew what he was doing.
0:19:37 > 0:19:43By 1915, there were 600 separate electricity suppliers across the country.
0:19:45 > 0:19:50The demands of war led the Government to take steps to set up electricity commissions
0:19:50 > 0:19:53to make the generation and supply of electricity more efficient.
0:19:57 > 0:20:02And then the Government actually made a declaration that we would all use the same currentage, voltage,
0:20:02 > 0:20:05it would all come through the same way and it was the start of the grid.
0:20:06 > 0:20:13Despite all its early dangers, electricity became the utility of choice for the modern Edwardian.
0:20:17 > 0:20:22By 1913, most of the one million new middle-class homes that had been built in Britain
0:20:22 > 0:20:27had electricity wired in and people were learning to use it with care.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48Change was not just afoot in technological terms.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52Edwardian society was also changing dramatically.
0:20:52 > 0:20:57This was an age of great social reform and, above all, it was an age of female advance.
0:21:00 > 0:21:03Although women were still employed in service,
0:21:03 > 0:21:07other options existed now in factories and shops,
0:21:07 > 0:21:10which inevitably had an impact on the home.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15Increasingly the Edwardian housewife, particularly the middle- and lower-class housewife,
0:21:15 > 0:21:20she really felt she shouldn't have to spend her entire day doing housework,
0:21:20 > 0:21:23and so there was a real growth of labour-saving devices,
0:21:23 > 0:21:26of ways in which the Edwardian woman could save her time,
0:21:26 > 0:21:29could not be doing the drudgery of the old days.
0:21:38 > 0:21:44Where technological and social change met was in finding an alternative to an unpleasant chore
0:21:44 > 0:21:50that had traditionally fallen to women, the building and cleaning-up of open coal fires.
0:21:54 > 0:22:00Anyone who could find a way to dispense with this onerous task was on to a winner.
0:22:02 > 0:22:08By the turn of the century, in cities particularly, gas and electric fires were rivalling coal.
0:22:08 > 0:22:10Some of them used a new wonder material.
0:22:15 > 0:22:21A resilient mineral that was non-flammable, insulating and provided clean energy.
0:22:21 > 0:22:27The new material was hailed as a miracle. Its name, asbestos.
0:22:34 > 0:22:39Asbestos was seen as a wonderful material, because it didn't burn.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42It was a very versatile material,
0:22:42 > 0:22:44you could weave it, which was superb,
0:22:44 > 0:22:47and you could use it as an insulator...
0:22:47 > 0:22:49It's good for soundproofing,
0:22:49 > 0:22:52it's good for thermal efficiency, it was good for fire resistance.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55It was really the wonder stuff.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57It was strong and it was very, very cheap.
0:22:58 > 0:23:03Asbestos is naturally occurring and had been used for thousands of years,
0:23:03 > 0:23:05but never on an industrial scale.
0:23:07 > 0:23:11By 1909, it was embedded in all sorts of manufacturing processes.
0:23:13 > 0:23:21In the late-Edwardian period, they were turning 190,000 metric tons of asbestos over,
0:23:21 > 0:23:27they were mining...a phenomenal amount coming out of South Africa, Russia, Canada, America,
0:23:27 > 0:23:33all being imported into Britain, and then off to the asbestos factories.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36Every day was like Christmas Day,
0:23:36 > 0:23:41because when they walked through the factory it was snowing, and it was asbestos dust.
0:23:44 > 0:23:49Edwardians were happily working with what we now know to be a carcinogenic killer.
0:23:51 > 0:23:56The first person to alert the authorities to the possibility there could be a problem
0:23:56 > 0:23:58was a factory inspector.
0:23:59 > 0:24:05The earliest account of the health hazard of working with asbestos came from Lucy Deane,
0:24:05 > 0:24:09one of the first female Inspectors of Factories in the UK.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13Writing in 1898, she included asbestos work
0:24:13 > 0:24:17as one of the four dusty occupations under observation that year,
0:24:17 > 0:24:22quote "on account of their easily demonstrated danger to the health of workers".
0:24:23 > 0:24:25Deane's report notes that...
0:24:37 > 0:24:42If you look through the records, there are instances around about the late 1800s
0:24:42 > 0:24:48of actually, there was a 19-year-old asbestos worker who they carried out a postmortem on,
0:24:48 > 0:24:52and they actually found fibrous substances in his lungs.
0:24:52 > 0:24:58Asbestos fibres are very, very fine, about a hundredth of the width of a human hair,
0:24:58 > 0:25:02so you can't really see them with the naked eye, but, because they're so fine, they're easy to inhale.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06When you breathe in, they can get deep into the lungs and they stick there.
0:25:06 > 0:25:12Initially they cause scarring, something called asbestosis with fibrosis and scarring of the lungs,
0:25:12 > 0:25:16which starts to replace normal lung tissue with fibrous scars,
0:25:16 > 0:25:18which means that the lungs aren't doing their job properly.
0:25:18 > 0:25:24But although Deane raised the alarm, her findings were ignored for many years.
0:25:24 > 0:25:29People might have noticed it caused difficulty with breathing, but nothing was done.
0:25:30 > 0:25:34They didn't really know what it was and they used to just put it down to bronchial problems,
0:25:34 > 0:25:36or, you know, breathing problems of some description,
0:25:36 > 0:25:41but they were starting to think that there may be something in these new substances
0:25:41 > 0:25:45that weren't good when they actually mixed with humans.
0:25:47 > 0:25:53What the Edwardians didn't appreciate at the time was the exact deadly nature of asbestos.
0:25:53 > 0:25:58This is what a lung looks like when it's been destroyed by asbestos fibres.
0:25:59 > 0:26:05The real danger of asbestos is in causing a particular cancer called mesothelioma.
0:26:05 > 0:26:08This affects the pleurae, and it's an abnormal growth.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11It can encase the lungs and spread throughout the body.
0:26:11 > 0:26:18It's almost completely untreatable, and it certainly was in the early part of the 20th century.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23Unfortunately, because of its amazing qualities,
0:26:23 > 0:26:28by now asbestos was being used in all sorts of products throughout the home.
0:26:29 > 0:26:35It was actually quite good for lining water tanks, so unfortunately we then put asbestos inside water tanks,
0:26:35 > 0:26:40and then we were taking water out of the tanks, through lead piping with asbestos...
0:26:40 > 0:26:44it's a case of how many problems did you want to put in one place
0:26:44 > 0:26:46and then reap the benefits years down the line?
0:26:46 > 0:26:51They started making floor tiles, ceiling tiles, it was lining their boilers,
0:26:51 > 0:26:53they made gutters out of it.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57You could make a cistern for your toilet out of it, your toilet seat even...
0:26:57 > 0:27:05The amount of applications asbestos actually had in gutters, in fascia board, in tiles,
0:27:05 > 0:27:09in Artex, it's in just about everything!
0:27:11 > 0:27:16It was the most hidden of hidden killers, sometimes waiting years to do its worst...
0:27:16 > 0:27:19and to the least suspecting members of the household.
0:27:20 > 0:27:25There are quite a few stories of the wives of asbestos workers developing mesothelioma,
0:27:25 > 0:27:29and that's thought to be because they're washing their husbands' clothes,
0:27:29 > 0:27:32and are being exposed to the asbestos fibres in that way,
0:27:32 > 0:27:37so it's not just people who work with asbestos who can develop these problems.
0:27:39 > 0:27:44The dangers of asbestos in the home were different to the problems in the factory.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47When asbestos remained undisturbed in the fabric of a building,
0:27:47 > 0:27:50its fibres would not be released into the air.
0:27:52 > 0:27:57It's really disrupting asbestos that causes the problem so that you breathe in the fibres.
0:27:57 > 0:28:01So we hear today about buildings that are being condemned because they have a lot of asbestos in the walls.
0:28:01 > 0:28:05That probably wouldn't cause any problem to somebody walking through the building,
0:28:05 > 0:28:09but if you were to knock it down, those fibres could get into the atmosphere and be breathed in.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12The other problem with asbestos is it has a long latent period.
0:28:12 > 0:28:18It can take 20, 30, even 40 years for mesothelioma to develop after exposure,
0:28:18 > 0:28:22so it wasn't something that happened immediately. It took a long time.
0:28:22 > 0:28:26And it took a long time for the danger to be acknowledged in the factories too.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30They did a series of postmortems on 30 people in a factory
0:28:30 > 0:28:33where only two people had actually survived this factory,
0:28:33 > 0:28:36and they looked for common trends that was the problem,
0:28:36 > 0:28:40and it was all about this fibrous build-up inside their lungs,
0:28:40 > 0:28:47and that's when asbestosis actually got its name, it was where it really came from.
0:28:52 > 0:28:57Partly because of cover-ups, partly because of a desire not to know,
0:28:57 > 0:29:01the dangers of asbestos didn't become public until the 1920s.
0:29:01 > 0:29:07The first asbestosis diagnosis by the British Medical Journal was not until 1924,
0:29:07 > 0:29:10and legislation took much longer to follow.
0:29:18 > 0:29:24I think sometimes it was ignorance, other times it was for a profit,
0:29:24 > 0:29:26there was so much money to make out of it.
0:29:26 > 0:29:32The death rate in factories led to a decline in the use of asbestos, and it is banned today,
0:29:32 > 0:29:36but it remains hidden in many buildings.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42A lot of people don't actually know about the widespread applications of asbestos.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46I've no doubt it is still in properties today.
0:29:46 > 0:29:54Even now, over 100 years later, there are annually more deaths in the UK due to mesothelioma
0:29:54 > 0:29:57than deaths caused by road accidents.
0:29:57 > 0:30:02And it could be argued we won't know the final death toll for another hundred years.
0:30:02 > 0:30:08To this day, asbestos remains a true hidden killer.
0:30:25 > 0:30:27But it wasn't all doom and gloom.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31This was an age of firsts.
0:30:31 > 0:30:35Innovations of the Edwardian era include such fantastical breakthroughs
0:30:35 > 0:30:42as the first powered sustained successful flight by a machine heavier than air,
0:30:42 > 0:30:47the first mass production of motor cars, the first vacuum cleaners,
0:30:47 > 0:30:50and electric washing machines being manufactured in the UK.
0:30:50 > 0:30:56In other words, the Edwardians were laying the foundations of our modern world.
0:31:00 > 0:31:05Lots of these were the big inventions that transformed life outside the home,
0:31:05 > 0:31:12but there were also the smaller items that made day-to-day domestic life easier and more comfortable,
0:31:12 > 0:31:14things we take for granted today.
0:31:17 > 0:31:22All of the items and activities that the modern middle-class Edwardian needed
0:31:22 > 0:31:24could be bought from these pages.
0:31:24 > 0:31:28A hundred years previously, most of them would probably not have existed,
0:31:28 > 0:31:31let alone have been available for mass consumption.
0:31:45 > 0:31:50It's in the kitchen where we find the greatest technological marvels of the Edwardian age,
0:31:50 > 0:31:52making domestic life easier
0:31:52 > 0:31:54and sometimes shorter.
0:31:54 > 0:31:57If you were really up-to-date and had money to burn,
0:31:57 > 0:32:02what could be more desirable than a brand-new refrigerator?
0:32:04 > 0:32:08Food preservation was a major issue in Edwardian times.
0:32:08 > 0:32:12Initially, they made purpose-built cold cabinets to store food.
0:32:13 > 0:32:20They were carved out of timber lined with sawdust, it could be rabbit fur,
0:32:20 > 0:32:24and then your item was put inside and packed with ice.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29Ice was shipped in from the Arctic and distributed to people's homes.
0:32:29 > 0:32:34But no matter how well insulated the ice would not last long.
0:32:34 > 0:32:40They wanted some other way of doing it and technology gave them the answer, I suppose.
0:32:40 > 0:32:46So what came after ice? How did we get to the first fridges that used chemicals?
0:32:47 > 0:32:50To find out, I've come to South Bank University in London
0:32:50 > 0:32:54to meet refrigeration expert Professor Graeme Maidment.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58So is this enormous thing an early fridge?
0:32:58 > 0:33:03Yes, it's an early invention of a fridge, dates probably around 1870, that sort of thing.
0:33:05 > 0:33:11This unlikely-looking fridge has been rebuilt from early designs. It was never actually manufactured,
0:33:11 > 0:33:14but is perfect to illustrate the first attempts at refrigeration.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19When a version did come on to the market, it wasn't cheap.
0:33:23 > 0:33:31The earliest commercial fridges, early-20th century, would have been about £700, that sort of price,
0:33:31 > 0:33:37and compared to a Model T Ford which was maybe £500, so more expensive than a car.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41So early fridges were the plaything of the Edwardian rich,
0:33:41 > 0:33:45and did not become affordable to the masses until much later.
0:33:46 > 0:33:47And how did it work?
0:33:47 > 0:33:54Refrigeration uses the principle of evaporation of a liquid to gas to produce a cooling effect,
0:33:54 > 0:33:56and if I can show you with a little experiment...
0:33:56 > 0:34:01In this can we've got some butane, which is a common refrigerant that we use today.
0:34:01 > 0:34:07If we spray it, you can see it actually produces cooling as it hits the surface and evaporates.
0:34:07 > 0:34:09Wow, yes!
0:34:09 > 0:34:12At first it's warm, but then it gets really cold very fast.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18The evaporating gas draws heat, this is how a fridge works.
0:34:18 > 0:34:25The Edwardian engineers understood they needed to create a cycle where a gas could evaporate, draw the heat
0:34:25 > 0:34:27and return to liquid, continuously.
0:34:29 > 0:34:32The refrigerant would have been in these pipes here
0:34:32 > 0:34:35and would have made this small container within here cold.
0:34:35 > 0:34:37Just this little thing in the middle here?
0:34:37 > 0:34:39Absolutely! I know it's huge, isn't it?
0:34:39 > 0:34:41The whole machine is massive just for a small amount of cooling.
0:34:41 > 0:34:44- Yes. You could get a pint of milk in there and that's about it. - That's it.
0:34:44 > 0:34:49- What's all this, then? - Well, that's basically making the refrigerant back to a liquid again.
0:34:49 > 0:34:55We got a compressor that pumps it, this is a hand-driven one so you'd have had a servant driving this...
0:34:55 > 0:34:57That's a terrible job.
0:34:57 > 0:35:03That's awful! You'd have to be doing this all day 24 hours a day in order to keep that pint of milk cool!
0:35:03 > 0:35:04Absolutely!
0:35:04 > 0:35:09It took time for the technology to develop to cope with the chemicals they knew could work.
0:35:09 > 0:35:14This prototype was developed before electricity and well before rubber sealants.
0:35:14 > 0:35:17You can see here, you know, the sort of components that we would have used,
0:35:17 > 0:35:20the refrigerant wouldn't have stayed within the system, it would have leaked out.
0:35:21 > 0:35:25The trouble was that the early fridges weren't actually sealed fridges.
0:35:25 > 0:35:31So they used these gases and there would be a certain amount of seepage and leakage from these fridges.
0:35:31 > 0:35:34And this is what made the early fridges so hazardous.
0:35:36 > 0:35:40The dangers of the early fridges were actually in the chemicals that they used as the refrigeration.
0:35:40 > 0:35:46They had ammonia which was pretty flammable and pretty toxic.
0:35:46 > 0:35:50If you breathe in ammonia gas, it's immediately very toxic,
0:35:50 > 0:35:53so the eyes would start to water, the throat would become sore,
0:35:53 > 0:35:57it can cause chest pain, difficulty in breathing,
0:35:57 > 0:36:01and if you have enough of it, it can cause circulatory collapse and even death.
0:36:01 > 0:36:08You had sulphur dioxide, which was extremely toxic, and then you had methyl chloride.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13Only certain gases will turn from liquid to gas in the way required.
0:36:13 > 0:36:18Unfortunately, these properties also made them exceptionally dangerous.
0:36:18 > 0:36:22Gases like methyl chloride also had other uses.
0:36:24 > 0:36:27They actually used gases that in the First World War
0:36:27 > 0:36:30unfortunately were used to gas people in the trenches.
0:36:40 > 0:36:44If you have any length of period of being exposed to these gases,
0:36:44 > 0:36:48then you can get frostbite on the inside of your lungs.
0:36:48 > 0:36:51Your blood can pool on your heart.
0:36:51 > 0:36:58We're talking absolutely lethal materials to be using in a fridge.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03So not only were they poisonous, but they could be a fire hazard.
0:37:03 > 0:37:05These chemicals were volatile
0:37:05 > 0:37:08and could explode under certain conditions.
0:37:10 > 0:37:11Caused hundreds of deaths.
0:37:11 > 0:37:19The ammonia, typical, tiniest of leaks and it's just an explosion waiting to happen.
0:37:20 > 0:37:22It would wipe everyone in the room out.
0:37:22 > 0:37:24Pretty lethal stuff.
0:37:24 > 0:37:30Ether will auto-ignite with a temperature about 160 degrees C,
0:37:30 > 0:37:35which is quite a low temperature, and actually there's lots of things in our house
0:37:35 > 0:37:38that operate with a temperature of 160 degrees C,
0:37:38 > 0:37:41so switching on a light switch potentially could do that.
0:37:41 > 0:37:45So when the Edwardians were introducing all sorts of electric items into their homes,
0:37:45 > 0:37:51they were putting things that could actually set the ether on fire without a naked flame?
0:37:51 > 0:37:55That's right. That's why it's not a good refrigerant for a domestic fridge.
0:37:56 > 0:37:58BOOM!
0:38:00 > 0:38:06The proud owners of the first fridges which by then were electric, were paying a small fortune
0:38:06 > 0:38:09for a product riddled with dangerous design faults.
0:38:09 > 0:38:13Just as well fridges didn't go into mass production until the 1950s,
0:38:13 > 0:38:17by which time the technology could control the chemicals.
0:38:19 > 0:38:20So what do we use now?
0:38:21 > 0:38:27We use HFCs, hydrofluorocarbons, we also use some of the old refrigerants as well still,
0:38:27 > 0:38:32we use ammonia and carbon dioxide, but we can use them in a better way,
0:38:32 > 0:38:34because we've got better materials to contain them.
0:38:34 > 0:38:37They're actually sealed fridges now, the systems are actually a closed loop.
0:38:37 > 0:38:41So you have a compressor, you have a gases inside there.
0:38:41 > 0:38:44We're starting to use smaller amounts of the gases.
0:38:44 > 0:38:50They're more efficient, and as long as you actually sort of dispose of them properly, then they can be OK.
0:38:50 > 0:38:54So although they were using dangerous substances they'd hit on something that really worked?
0:38:54 > 0:38:56Absolutely, yeah, that's completely right.
0:39:02 > 0:39:06I'm going upstairs to the bedroom in search of the next killer...
0:39:09 > 0:39:12..one that particularly affected half the population.
0:39:29 > 0:39:34One of the consequences of the liberating social change of the period was that make-up,
0:39:34 > 0:39:40which the Victorians had denounced as the mark of a loose woman, became increasingly acceptable.
0:39:40 > 0:39:45The new Edwardian woman needed a little rouge and a dash of lipstick to look up-to-date.
0:39:49 > 0:39:53The desire to look beautiful remains a constant through the ages,
0:39:53 > 0:39:57but what is considered attractive in each era differs.
0:40:00 > 0:40:03The art of beauty, we always want to do the same things,
0:40:03 > 0:40:06and what distinguishes the Victorian period
0:40:06 > 0:40:08from the Edwardian period
0:40:08 > 0:40:10is that in the Victorian period
0:40:10 > 0:40:16you were supposed to perfectly beautiful with no assistance whatsoever.
0:40:16 > 0:40:20In the Edwardian period, you could use a little bit of help.
0:40:22 > 0:40:26By now make-up is being sold over the counter in the new department stores,
0:40:26 > 0:40:31and the products were advertised to Edwardian women by actresses famed for their beauty.
0:40:33 > 0:40:35Actresses were seen
0:40:35 > 0:40:38as more acceptable by the Edwardians.
0:40:38 > 0:40:40One particularly famous actress,
0:40:40 > 0:40:45Lillie Langtry, was actually noted very much for her beauty,
0:40:45 > 0:40:50and she really capitalised on this by lending her name to various beauty products,
0:40:50 > 0:40:52including face creams in this period.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56Lillie Langtry here, advertising Pear's soap,
0:40:56 > 0:41:02and she was apparently paid £132, which was exactly what she weighed.
0:41:03 > 0:41:07Lillie Langtry's beauty was known to have caught the eye of the King,
0:41:07 > 0:41:12so it became a style to be copied, but beauty came at a cost.
0:41:12 > 0:41:15Make-up used was not subject to any safety testing.
0:41:15 > 0:41:22Many new products made bogus claims, but were dangerous, and in extreme cases a killer!
0:41:33 > 0:41:37The Edwardian women was told to make herself beautiful to catch a husband
0:41:37 > 0:41:42and to keep a husband, and by doing so she covered her face in poison.
0:41:43 > 0:41:48The dangers began before any make-up had been applied, with face cream.
0:41:49 > 0:41:53An Edwardian lady had to have a pure lily-white skin
0:41:53 > 0:41:56to distinguish herself from the sun-tanned working classes,
0:41:56 > 0:42:01and some of the most dangerous products are things like this...
0:42:01 > 0:42:06- This is Harriet Hubbard Ayer moth and freckle lotion.- What is that?
0:42:06 > 0:42:08Moths were sort of liver spots,
0:42:08 > 0:42:12it was a 19th-century term for liver spots and discolorations on the skin.
0:42:12 > 0:42:19And a lot of them were, well, pretty much... camphor, bleach, ammonia...
0:42:19 > 0:42:25anything you could choose to sort of blanch your skin because you had to have a pure lily-white skin.
0:42:29 > 0:42:35As late as sort of 1909, Vogue was advertising arsenic wafers
0:42:35 > 0:42:40which you would take to get rid of any poor skin issues,
0:42:40 > 0:42:43and arsenic soap for that offending pimple.
0:42:44 > 0:42:49On top of these layers of poison, they put a dusting of toxic powder.
0:42:50 > 0:42:54Poisonous chemicals have very bright and distinctive colours,
0:42:54 > 0:42:57so there were lead compounds, for example, that were very white,
0:42:57 > 0:43:00and so women liked to use it on their skin as part of a face powder,
0:43:00 > 0:43:04and that would be absorbed through the skin and could cause chronic lead poisoning.
0:43:06 > 0:43:09Different things were used for rouge.
0:43:09 > 0:43:17Cochineal, which was made from crushed insects, that's fine, but vermillion came from mercury.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22Mercury's a heavy metal and it's very bad for the body,
0:43:22 > 0:43:24it can affect several different organs,
0:43:24 > 0:43:27particularly the brain, the lungs and the kidneys.
0:43:27 > 0:43:29It can cause problems with sensation,
0:43:29 > 0:43:35unable to feel things, maybe unable to see, and can cause you to go mad eventually.
0:43:36 > 0:43:38Even the eyes weren't safe.
0:43:38 > 0:43:44There was a product for darkening your eyelashes and your eyebrows
0:43:44 > 0:43:47which actually made your cornea fall off, and several people went blind.
0:43:47 > 0:43:52One of the things women liked to use in the early-20th century was belladonna.
0:43:52 > 0:43:56This was obtained from a plant, and when drops are put in the eyes
0:43:56 > 0:44:00it makes the pupils dilate, which is meant to signify desire and arousal,
0:44:00 > 0:44:03and so made women look more attractive.
0:44:03 > 0:44:07One of the problems with this, of course, is that it's a drug,
0:44:07 > 0:44:10and when it's absorbed it can have an effect on the rest of the body.
0:44:10 > 0:44:14At best, it would probably have caused blurred vision and a dry mouth
0:44:14 > 0:44:18and, at worst, a very irregular heartbeat,
0:44:18 > 0:44:19and even blindness.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22You didn't know what was in these things.
0:44:22 > 0:44:29There was no description of content or anything like that because there was no legal obligation to do so.
0:44:36 > 0:44:40A lot of new treatments were encouraged at this time, all in the name of beauty.
0:44:43 > 0:44:47The crowning glory of an Edwardian woman was her hair,
0:44:47 > 0:44:51and to be truly fashionable it had to be curly, coiffed and big,
0:44:51 > 0:44:55a process that often destroyed what it was meant to enhance.
0:44:56 > 0:44:59These elaborate hairstyles took a lot of effort,
0:44:59 > 0:45:04effort that inevitably led to unsafe practices with horrible consequences.
0:45:25 > 0:45:31There was a big problem in the Edwardian period of female baldness.
0:45:33 > 0:45:35Why were women going bald?
0:45:35 > 0:45:39People were using very dangerous hair dyes which was one of the causes,
0:45:39 > 0:45:43but the other big cause... I mean, you'd have been fine with your fabulous curls,
0:45:43 > 0:45:49but everybody curled their hair... and so if you're doing that...
0:45:49 > 0:45:53allow me to demonstrate... This would give you a sort of a crimp...
0:45:53 > 0:45:57- Yes.- For travelling, you might have a little one like that,
0:45:57 > 0:46:00so you were curling your hair the whole time,
0:46:00 > 0:46:05and the dangers of burning with this were absolutely extreme.
0:46:06 > 0:46:11Tongs like these were heated in the fire and applied straight on to the hair,
0:46:11 > 0:46:12often burning it off.
0:46:12 > 0:46:14But worse was to follow.
0:46:15 > 0:46:21Karl Nessler came up with the first permanent-waving machine in 1906,
0:46:21 > 0:46:24but not before he'd burnt his wife's hair off twice.
0:46:24 > 0:46:25Goodness me!
0:46:25 > 0:46:30So definitely there's a reason for baldness if ever I saw one!
0:46:31 > 0:46:34Nessler's wonder machine involved wrapping the hair around rods,
0:46:34 > 0:46:39and covering it with alkaline paste, and, most dangerously of all, asbestos.
0:46:39 > 0:46:42Gas was then used to steam the curls tight.
0:46:42 > 0:46:45It would take 6 hours.
0:46:45 > 0:46:46It was extremely popular.
0:46:48 > 0:46:55Once your hair was right, you had the challenge of adding a hat and so introduced another danger.
0:46:56 > 0:46:58Look at that whacking great hat!
0:46:58 > 0:47:05You couldn't put your hat on your head without huge hat pins. These were up to 14 inches long.
0:47:05 > 0:47:12And that was another very dangerous thing, because you've got all that incredibly sort of sharp pointed end.
0:47:12 > 0:47:19Ladies were banned from wearing unprotected hat pins on omnibuses in case they scratched people.
0:47:19 > 0:47:25Suffragettes had their hat pins removed when they went into court in case they stabbed people,
0:47:25 > 0:47:32and Edwardian novelists did lovely sort of vignettes of ladies preserving their virtue
0:47:32 > 0:47:35by stabbing an aggressor or a dirty old man with a hat pin.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43Ironically, while she was killing herself to look beautiful,
0:47:43 > 0:47:48the Edwardian middle-class woman was herself a killer, of wildlife.
0:47:50 > 0:47:57The biggest killer in the Edwardian home was undoubtedly the Edwardian lady herself,
0:47:57 > 0:48:03with her taste for hats decorated with the most exotic feathers and sometimes even whole dead birds.
0:48:04 > 0:48:07Thousands of songbirds,
0:48:07 > 0:48:11egrets, birds of paradise, slaughtered in the name of millinery.
0:48:13 > 0:48:18A public outcry led to the end of the fashion for dead birds on hats,
0:48:18 > 0:48:24and to the establishment of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Birds in 1904.
0:48:25 > 0:48:29Women however continued to be the willing victims of the beauty industry.
0:48:30 > 0:48:37Bald, blind, burnt, scarred, Edwardian make-up was a dangerous business.
0:48:37 > 0:48:43In fact, the early-20th century was poised on the verge of the mass production of cosmetics,
0:48:43 > 0:48:46and the explosion of a whole new industry...
0:48:47 > 0:48:51..one that would test their products first before releasing them on consumers.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56Standing on the shoulders of their ingenious Victorian forefathers,
0:48:56 > 0:49:02Edwardian inventors continued to expand the scientific horizon, and yet...
0:49:02 > 0:49:07Edwardian optimism was not as unambiguously confident and certain
0:49:07 > 0:49:10as the heady days of the mid-Victorian period.
0:49:10 > 0:49:17Things were moving fast and the speed and consequences of change rightly concerned many commentators.
0:49:17 > 0:49:23Their great hopes of the future were matched by serious anxieties about what that future might bring.
0:49:23 > 0:49:27And many of their fears were justified, for their new explosive freedom
0:49:27 > 0:49:32introduced into the family home some of the biggest killers ever.
0:49:48 > 0:49:52When Marie Curie discovered radium in 1898
0:49:52 > 0:49:55and won a second Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1911,
0:49:55 > 0:50:03she not only showed that women could be successful scientists, she also pioneered a new science.
0:50:05 > 0:50:10In terms of the home, though, the discovery took killers to a nuclear level.
0:50:17 > 0:50:19Radium was known as the wonder element.
0:50:19 > 0:50:25Deemed capable of preventing disease, and conferring medicinal benefits,
0:50:25 > 0:50:28it was used by doctors and quacks alike.
0:50:29 > 0:50:33Radium first came to the public's attention as a treatment for cancer,
0:50:33 > 0:50:37but it seemed to give off an energy that could be harnessed in the home
0:50:37 > 0:50:41in ways Madame Curie could not have imagined when she discovered it.
0:50:44 > 0:50:48I've come to the University of Surrey's Department of Nuclear Physics
0:50:48 > 0:50:51to explore radium with Professor Patrick Regan.
0:50:55 > 0:51:00So, Paddy, why were people so excited about radium in the early-20th century?
0:51:00 > 0:51:04Here is this magic material that appears to come from nowhere,
0:51:04 > 0:51:10it's the changing of the element uranium, spontaneously apparently, changing into another element,
0:51:10 > 0:51:15this new chemically separated material radium, and it emanates energy.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18This is the birth of nuclear physics.
0:51:19 > 0:51:22So what is radium and why is it a problem?
0:51:23 > 0:51:25Radium is a radioactive compound,
0:51:25 > 0:51:28and so most of its effects are due to the radioactivity.
0:51:28 > 0:51:34It has a very long half-life. That means that it remains radioactive for years and years.
0:51:34 > 0:51:38And so you don't just swallow a bit, and within ten minutes the radioactivity's gone.
0:51:38 > 0:51:40It continues to do you harm, probably for the rest of your life.
0:51:40 > 0:51:44One of the problems is that the body treats radium like calcium,
0:51:44 > 0:51:50and so it absorbs it into the bones and that's where the radium does a lot of its damage.
0:51:50 > 0:51:52It damages the bone marrow which is the place
0:51:52 > 0:51:55where our body makes all of the blood cells that it needs.
0:51:55 > 0:51:57This is called aplastic anaemia,
0:51:57 > 0:52:00when all of the bone marrow is destroyed,
0:52:00 > 0:52:03so that none of your blood products are made,
0:52:03 > 0:52:05and this is one of the awful side effects of radium.
0:52:07 > 0:52:10But this horror had yet to unfold in the early-20th century.
0:52:12 > 0:52:15The burgeoning scientific discoveries of the period
0:52:15 > 0:52:20provided the Edwardians with what seemed, at least at first, as fun.
0:52:20 > 0:52:24Radium as isolated by Marie Curie was an incredible discovery,
0:52:24 > 0:52:26it was a really world-changing discovery.
0:52:26 > 0:52:30What we might see as the most important, in medical use,
0:52:30 > 0:52:32that wasn't what the Edwardians were interested in.
0:52:32 > 0:52:36They were delighted by the fact that it could create luminous paint.
0:52:39 > 0:52:44The public imagination was fired by the idea of radium, its energy and luminosity
0:52:44 > 0:52:49thrilled and excited them, leading to a radium craze in Europe in 1903.
0:52:53 > 0:52:57Corsets, for example, corsets that kept you warm for anti-rheumatism.
0:52:57 > 0:53:02You could buy radium socks, radium underwear, you could get chocolate with radium in it.
0:53:04 > 0:53:06Could this be a hidden killer?
0:53:07 > 0:53:11Radium was even available in toothpaste and water.
0:53:12 > 0:53:16It was the energy that radium emitted that made it appeal to the Edwardians.
0:53:16 > 0:53:21They truly believed that by ingesting radium the body would absorb this energy.
0:53:22 > 0:53:24So they used it in everything they could.
0:53:29 > 0:53:31They even had radium spas,
0:53:31 > 0:53:36where you could go and relax in the spa water surrounded by radium.
0:53:36 > 0:53:42Reports rather strangely also of condoms that had radium included in them.
0:53:42 > 0:53:47Men in particular thought luminous paint on their watch faces was pretty thrilling.
0:53:47 > 0:53:51So it was absolutely everywhere, anywhere you looked, they used radium.
0:53:51 > 0:53:55It was a magic substance, it was seen as a sort of panacea for everything.
0:53:55 > 0:53:59It would be years before the damaging effects of radium were discovered.
0:54:00 > 0:54:04And it was one particular product that gave us the clue.
0:54:05 > 0:54:10One of the most popular items to buy for the home at this time was the luminous clock,
0:54:10 > 0:54:13and it was radium that made it glow in the dark.
0:54:13 > 0:54:17Radium on clocks was seen as a safety measure in the home,
0:54:17 > 0:54:19because it meant that if you woke up in the middle of the night,
0:54:19 > 0:54:24and there was a banging downstairs, you would know what time it was immediately from your clock,
0:54:24 > 0:54:26so they were sold as a safety precaution,
0:54:26 > 0:54:30as something that would really help you stay safe in the home.
0:54:30 > 0:54:36Such was the popularity of the luminous clock, a whole new industry grew up around its manufacture.
0:54:36 > 0:54:38Young women were employed to paint the dials.
0:54:38 > 0:54:43The girls who used to do that used to lick the tips of their brushes to give a fine point,
0:54:43 > 0:54:48and in doing so they would transfer some of the radium in the paint on to their lips.
0:54:48 > 0:54:54It was these working practices that led to the discovery of how fatal radium can be.
0:54:55 > 0:54:58Nowadays we can measure that extremely accurately,
0:54:58 > 0:55:04so we can measure literally one radioactive decay at a time.
0:55:04 > 0:55:08We've got a Geiger counter here, so, Suzy, if you just bring that in...
0:55:08 > 0:55:13Using modern-day measuring techniques and this sample of luminous green paint,
0:55:13 > 0:55:19similar to that of the clocks dials, we can show that the paint is producing alpha radiation.
0:55:19 > 0:55:22But when you place a barrier, similar to the glass on a clock face,
0:55:22 > 0:55:26between the paint and the Geiger counter, the radiation is reduced,
0:55:26 > 0:55:29and the damage it would do to the skin will be less.
0:55:30 > 0:55:34Putting it in basically attenuates the alpha particles...
0:55:34 > 0:55:38If alpha particles are external to the body, they do basically no biological damage,
0:55:38 > 0:55:40or very little biological damage at all.
0:55:40 > 0:55:44If you ingest radium inside you, it's a bone-seeking chemical,
0:55:44 > 0:55:47it will go into the surfaces of the bone
0:55:47 > 0:55:51and it will deposit its radioactive energy into that bone tissue.
0:55:51 > 0:55:55This is what happened to the women painting the clock dials.
0:55:56 > 0:55:58They developed something called radium jaw,
0:55:58 > 0:56:02which was necrosis of the bone, the bone was eaten away in their jaw,
0:56:02 > 0:56:07and it would also then go on to cause all the systemic effects, the effects on the rest of the body.
0:56:07 > 0:56:12But this radium jaw was very typical of women who worked with radium.
0:56:12 > 0:56:17If it deposits enough energy in the right way, it can change the DNA in some of the cells in that region
0:56:17 > 0:56:19and that can lead to cancers.
0:56:25 > 0:56:31These days we have a much better understanding of radium, what it is and how to deal with it.
0:56:33 > 0:56:38The tragic thing is what was known and what was hidden during the Edwardian period.
0:56:39 > 0:56:44One of the interesting things about this is that we believe that the people who owned the factories
0:56:44 > 0:56:47that were using radium and the scientists who were developing it
0:56:47 > 0:56:52knew of some of the dangers and took great care not to expose themselves to radium.
0:56:52 > 0:56:56But unfortunately they didn't take the same precautions with their workers.
0:56:57 > 0:57:02That was really one of the first pieces of strong scientific empirical evidence
0:57:02 > 0:57:05that ingesting of radium was deleterious to health.
0:57:06 > 0:57:10They even tried to smear the reputation of the women
0:57:10 > 0:57:13by suggesting that a lot of the problems that they had was due to syphilis,
0:57:13 > 0:57:15and not radium at all.
0:57:20 > 0:57:25The damaging and often fatal side effects of radiation exposure
0:57:25 > 0:57:28were only realised in the late 1920s.
0:57:36 > 0:57:41Much of the progress of the Edwardian era still shapes us today,
0:57:41 > 0:57:44and some of the problems are still with us too.
0:57:45 > 0:57:48Over time, though, the killers were gradually unveiled,
0:57:48 > 0:57:54and as a result these mod cons and innovations continued to develop.
0:57:56 > 0:58:01But without this first burst of creativity we wouldn't be where we are today,
0:58:01 > 0:58:05or have benefited from the resulting safety measures.
0:58:09 > 0:58:13With all the new materials and technologies we're exposed to these days,
0:58:13 > 0:58:18we may well be storing up our own hidden killers for the future.