Vintage Revigator Radium Ore Crock Quack Medical Device Antique Medical Device

Description

Vintage Revigator Radium Ore Crock and Original Lid.  Quack medical device - for display use only.  Measures 11" x 13" and is in overall lovely condition with no major issues to the body of the crock.  Lid has several large chips the the underside (please review all photos for the best description).
History: The radium ore Revigator was a pseudoscientific medical device consisting of a ceramic water crock lined with radioactive materials. It was patented in 1912 by R. W. Thomas. Thomas was working at the time as a stock salesman in Arizona but, by 1923, had moved to southern California to begin manufacture of his patent. In 1924, following several successful advertisement campaigns that left him unable to keep up with demand, he sold his operation to Dow-Herriman Pump & Machinery Company, selling thousands of the devices in the 1920s and 1930s.
The Revigator was intended to be filled with water overnight, which would be irradiated by the uranium and radium in the liner, and then consumed the next day.
The Revigator contained carnotite K2(UO2)2(VO4)2·3H2O. Water stored overnight in a vintage Revigator was analyzed by ICP-MS and radiation detectors. Although the water contained high levels of radon, a Mount St. Mary's University study posited that the health risk from radiation was probably low relative to the other causes of mortality at the time. The water also contained levels of arsenic, lead (due to the fact that it had a lead spout), vanadium, and uranium that pose a health risk.