SOMERTON MAN: CHARLES WEBB, THE INSTRUMENT MAKER.....

 

...CAC 12 BOOMERANG
INSTRUMENT PANEL...

THE EXTREMELY VALUABLE INPUT FROM DR. JOHN AND FROM PETER DAVIDSON IN CREATING THIS POST IS ACKNOWLEDGED...

All the aircraft made at CAC Fisherman's Bend had an instrument panel, different types for different aircraft. But every instrument panel in those days had one thing in common. They were luminous. The instruments had been painted with Radium. Not the Radium born of Uranium ore processing but Radium born of Thorium ore. A far cheaper and far more dangerous form even though its radioactive half-life was just over 5 years as opposed to Uranium's 1620 years. The other most dangerous quality of this form of Radium is that emitted RADON gas, the kind of radioactive gas that sits in the lungs.

And what has this to do with Charles Webb? One thing is that Charles Webb has been described as an 'Instrument Maker'. Most instruments were made by contract companies like AWA for example but there were others. Charles also had a large number of missing teeth, exp[osure to Radium can cause serious loss of teeth and other things. This may be the cause of the Somerton Man's lost teeth.

Another thing that we uncovered when bringing this post together was that CAC Fisherman's Bend is said to have employed some 40,000 people through WW2. It sounds over the top but manufacturing warplanes during the war was far from being a 9 to 5 Monday to Friday job. It was full 24 hours a day, 7 Days a week, and 365 days a year. There were multiple shifts employed for this round-the-clock effort. Who knows where Australia would have been without that massive effort.

It has been found that there could have been as many as 20 or maybe more employees with the surname WEBB. Further, there were 2 and possibly three employees with the initial C.

Next, we will look at the issue of high lead content in the man's hair...