Mini Bio: Madame Curie - Part 7 (English)

Author: Eve Curie

During the First World War, she had the chance to make this dream a reality. Everywhere on the battlefield was immense human suffering, and Marie considered how she could use her knowledge to alleviate it. Thanks to her extensive knowledge of radiation, she developed a small, mobile X-ray machine that could be used at the front and in field hospitals.

Previously, soldiers who needed X-rays had to be taken to a city hospital and often died in transit. The mobile X-ray units were soon called "les petites Curies," and throughout the war, Marie worked to make them as effective as possible. She improved their technology, supervised their manufacture, and explained to nurses how to use the new instrument. And so, she saved dozens of lives.

Despite her achievements, the French public hardly celebrated Marie. A few years earlier, news broke that she’d had an affair with a married colleague, Paul Langevin. The press pounced on the scandal and made her out to be a loose foreigner who was destroying a perfect French family. As a result, Marie not only had to endure public hostility but also had great difficulty financing her research – even after her contributions in the First World War.

And so, In 1921, Marie decided on a change of scenery. With help from Missy Meloney, an activist and influential journalist in the United States, Marie took a trip to New York City. There, where her reputation as a brilliant trailblazer preceded her, Marie Curie was received as a hero.

Together with her two daughters, who in the meantime had both become researchers in their own right, Marie went on a whirlwind tour of the United States: she spoke at 18 colleges, received seven honorary doctorate degrees, and explored the Grand Canyon. She also met with President Warren Harding in the White House, who presented her with radium for her research.

Radium wasn’t cheap – one gram alone cost one hundred thousand dollars. Missy Meloney had organized the fundraising for the radium and additional equipment for Marie’s lab, which was primarily gathered by small donations from women across the country. And Meloney even helped restore Marie’s reputation: she used her nationwide influence with the press to ensure that no journalist who interviewed Marie would print a peep about her affair with Pierre Langevin.

By the time Marie returned to France, her reputation as a loose foreigner was old news, and she was once again celebrated as an icon.