Day-Glo! Magician brightens up the war to save lives
MAGICIAN INVENTS DAY-GLO COLOURS. In 1934, in the middle of the Great Depression, a nineteen-year-old American university student was working a summer job at a tomato quality control laboratory, when he fell and was knocked unconscious. Months later, Robert 'Bob' Switzer awoke from a coma with blurred vision. To continue his recuperation, Bob's doctor recommended avoiding bright light. Acting on this advice, Switzer's father, a pharmacist, turned his shop’s basement into a darkroom. One day, Bob was playing with an ultraviolet light with his younger brother Joseph. The pair noticed that the some of the organic compounds in his father storeroom glowed brightly under the ultraviolet light. Intrigued, the pair started experimenting with the chemicals, especially with Murine eye wash. They found that by mixing it with an alcohol solution of white shellac paint, they could make a fluorescent yellow paint. The compound appeared white to the naked eye, but under a U.V. light...