In the middle of the 20th century, the atom was all the rage. Radiation was the shiny new solution to everything while being similarly poorly understood by the general public and a great deal of those working with it.

Against this backdrop, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company decided to sprinkle some radioactive magic into spark plugs. There was some science behind the silliness, but it turns out there are a number of good reasons we’re not using nuke plugs under the hood of cars to this day.

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