CURIE PIERRE: (1859-1906) Curie receives bottles of water from different sources to make tests for radioactivity

CURIE PIERRE: (1859-1906) Curie receives bottles of water from different sources to make tests for radioactivity

CURIE PIERRE: (1859-1906) French Physicist. Nobel Prize winner for Physics, with his wife Marie and Henri Becquerel, 1903. A pioneer in radioactivity. An excellent A.L.S., `P. Curie´, to one side of a printed small oblong 8vo correspondence card from the Faculté des Sciences de Paris, 12 Rue Cuvier, Paris, 9th August 1904, to a gentleman, in French. An interesting scientific content letter related to Curie´s investigations on radioactivity. Pierre Curie thanks his correspondent for the samples received, stating `Monsieur, J´ai reçu en très bon état la caisse de bouteilles d´eaux de diverses sources que vous avez bien voulu m´envoyer...´ (Translation: "Sir, I received in very good condition the case of bottles of water from various sources that you were kind enough to send me...") Some light water staining (perhaps caused by the water from the bottles referred to), only very slightly affecting the conclusion of the signature, and with a few minor creases, about G

From 1904, Pierre Curie and Albert Laborde, his collaborator in the laboratory of the rue Cuvier, were interested in thermal waters. Indeed, their therapeutic properties, some of which have been known since ancient times, continued to intrigue. The radioactivity rate of many of them turned out to be higher than normal. From there to deducting that their therapeutic qualities came from radioactivity, there was only a step which thermal spas and companies of spring water did not hesitate to cross: the radioactivity became a selling point for convincing their customers and attracting new spa guests.