Radioactive decay is an ongoing process; any radium source will steadily release radioactive radon gas. In 1908, a German firm doing business as the Radium Heil Gesellschaft (RHG), or “Radium Healing Society,” began to market several products that took advantage of this quality, including a series of “Radium Emanation Activators”: jugs designed to produce radon-infused water for individual consumption. The products generally consisted of a water jug or fountain incorporating a radium source, which would steadily release radon gas. The resulting radioactive water was marketed as an energy drink and health tonic. Consumers were instructed to drink the radon-water from the jugs on a regular schedule—with breakfast and dinner, for instance—as a cure for various ailments, a preventative treatment against aging and degeneration, and as a source of general energy, or “potency.”

In both the United States and Europe, numerous manufacturers produced and marketed devices intended for this type of radiation therapy. Emanation jugs could be produced with relative ease, since they did not require “pure” radium salts—virtually any uranium-bearing ore would do—and wealthy consumers could purchase radium-doped jugs for the home or office throughout the 1920s. In the United States, the most popular brand sold under the name “Radium Ore Revigator.” With the Saubermann Radium Emanation Activator shown to the right, however, RHG sought to target a different market: physicians.