| Eben Byers | |
|---|---|
 Byers in 1906 | |
| Personal information | |
| Full name | Ebenezer McBurney Byers |
| Born | (1880-04-12)April 12, 1880 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | March 31, 1932(1932-03-31) (aged 51) |
| Sporting nationality |  United States |
| Career | |
| Status | Amateur |
| Best results in major championships (wins: 1) | |
| PGA Championship | DNP |
| U.S. Open | CUT: 1908 |
| The Open Championship | DNP |
| U.S. Amateur | Won: 1906 |
| British Amateur | T17: 1904 |
Ebenezer McBurney Byers (April 12, 1880 – March 31, 1932) was an Americansocialite, sportsman, andindustrialist. He won the 1906U.S. Amateur in golf. He died fromjawbone cancer after consuming 1,400 bottles ofRadithor, apatent medicine made fromradium salts dissolved in water.
The son of industrialist Alexander Byers, Eben Byers was educated atSt. Paul's School andYale College.[1] He earned a reputation as a sportsman and played on theYale Bulldogs golf team. Byers was theU.S. Amateur golf champion of 1906,[2] after finishing runner-up in 1902 and 1903.[3][4] Byers eventually became the chairman of the Girard Iron Company, which had been created by his father.[1]
In 1927, Byers injured his arm falling from a railwaysleeping berth. For the persistent pain, a doctor suggested he takeRadithor, apatent medicine manufactured byWilliam J. A. Bailey.[5] Bailey was aHarvard University dropout who falsely claimed to be a doctor of medicine and had become rich from the sale of Radithor, a solution of radium in water which he claimed stimulated theendocrine system. He offered physicians a 1/6kickback on each dose prescribed.[6]
Byers began taking several doses of Radithor per day, believing it gave him a "toned-up feeling", but stopped in October 1930 (after taking some 1400 doses) when that effect faded. He lost weight and had headaches, and his teeth began to fall out. In 1931, theFederal Trade Commission asked him to testify about his experience, but he was too sick to travel, so the commission sent a lawyer to take his statement at his home; the lawyer reported that Byers's "whole upper jaw, excepting two front teeth and most of his lower jawhad been removed" and that "All the remaining bone tissue of his body was disintegrating, and holes were actually forming in his skull."[7]
His death on March 31, 1932, was attributed to radium poisoning.[5][8] Radium is known to emit alpha, beta, and gamma radiation. While alpha radiation has low penetrating ability and typically does not present a danger, ingestion of radium in the form of Radithor allowed accumulation in the bones. Without shielding provided by the skin, the highly ionizing alpha radiation was able to cause localized cell damage on an extreme level, and this is ultimately what led to Byers's cancer and death.[9] He is buried inAllegheny Cemetery inPittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a lead-lined coffin.[6]
Byers's death received much publicity and it heightened awareness of the dangers of radioactive "cures".[8]
TheFederal Trade Commission issued an order against Bailey's business to "cease and desist from various representations theretofore made by them as to the therapeutic value of Radithor and from representing that the product Radithor is harmless".[10] He later founded the "Radium Institute" in New York and marketed a radioactive belt-clip, a radioactive paperweight, and a mechanism which purported to make water radioactive.[11]
After exhuming Byers's body in 1965, MIT physicistRobley Evans estimated Byers's totalradium intake as about 1000 μCi (37 MBq), with about half fromRa-226 and the other half from the highly radioactivemesothorium (Ra-228).[12][failed verification] Dr. Evans also studiedradium dial painters and was able to study one whose intake was similar to, but somewhat higher than Byers's.
There is a pair of photographs found online which supposedly shows Eben Byers with a missing lower jaw. One or both of these disturbing images appear on many websites and in many online searches for Byers.The photos appear to have originated in a book titledManual Of Standard Practice Of Plastic and Maxillofacial Surgery byRobert H. Ivy, published by the United States Government in 1942; the book focuses on war injuries and the photographs, purportedly of Byers, appear alongside many images of other serious injuries.There is no reference in the book which states that the photos are of Byers, depicts a person with radium afflictions, nor is the source of the photographs mentioned. However, given the subject of the book, it seems reasonable to conclude that the images are not of Byers, but of an injured United States war veteran.
| Year | Championship | Winning score | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1906 | U.S. Amateur | 2 up |  George Lyon |
| Tournament | 1900 | 1901 | 1902 | 1903 | 1904 | 1905 | 1906 | 1907 | 1908 | 1909 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. Open | CUT | |||||||||
| U.S. Amateur | R16 | R16 | 2 | 2 | R16 | QF | 1 | SF | QF | |
| The Amateur Championship | R32 | R128 | ||||||||
| Tournament | 1910 | 1911 | 1912 | 1913 | 1914 | 1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918 | 1919 |
| U.S. Amateur | R32 | R32 | R32 | R16 | R16 | R32 | R32 | NT | NT | DNQ |
| Tournament | 1920 | 1921 | 1922 | 1923 | 1924 | 1925 | 1926 | |||
| U.S. Amateur | DNQ | DNQ |
Note: Byers died before the founding of theMasters Tournament, and never played inThe Open Championship. As an amateur, he could not play in thePGA Championship.
NT = No tournament
DNQ = Did not qualify for match play portion
R128, R64, R32, R16, QF, SF = Round in which player lost in match play
Source for U.S. Amateur:USGA Championship Database
Source for 1904 British Amateur:Golf, July 1904, pg. 6.
Source for 1907 British Amateur:The Glasgow Herald, May 29, 1907, pg. 12.