One of the weirder episodes in the Oz series is in
The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1913):
The room was of dazzling brilliance and beauty, for it was lined
throughout with an exquisite metal that resembled translucent
frosted silver. The surface of this metal was highly ornamented in
raised designs representing men, animals, flowers and trees, and
from the metal itself was radiated the soft light which flooded the
room. All the furniture was made of the same glorious metal, and
Scraps asked what it was.
“That's radium,” answered the Chief. “We Horners spend all our time
digging radium from the mines under this mountain, and we use it to
decorate our homes and make them pretty and cosy. It is a medicine,
too, and no one can ever be sick who lives near radium.”
Marie Curie, co-discoverer of radium, died in 1934 of chronic
illnesses caused by her long exposure to radiation.
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