Chemistry set Kickstarter looks to recapture the wonder of days gone by

Geek.com ^ | Nov 14, 2013 | Graham Templeton

[AdmSmith]

The phrase “chemistry set” is embedded in the collective unconscious, but try to actually call one to mind. What does a chemistry set look like? What does it include? What can you do with it? If you’re anything close to being a millennial, you probably have only vague answers to these questions. If you’re a little older, however, you probably remember one of the classic sets that is responsible for our powerful (if nonspecific) connection to the concept of a chemistry set. Chief among these, in many people’s eyes, is the Gilbert Chemistry Set, which inspired untold numbers of young people to study chemistry.

Now a new Kickstarter wants to help adults and children alike recapture an excitement that most of them have never actually known. Research chemist John Kuhns has been making wood-box chemistry sets for years, mostly as gifts and small sales direct to friends and family, but now he wants to scale up the operation and bring the tools of real chemists back to the everyday home.

His Heirloom Chemistry Set is certainly focused on nostalgia more heavily than on affordability; with a box of birch including mahogany inlays, the set is hardly cheap, and is clearly meant to be kept visible within the house. This is half chemistry set, half personal statement.

[AdmSmith]

Nowadays the kits are fancy, but the chemicals are censored.
This http://www.hometrainingtools.com/chem-c3000-kit/p/KT-CHEM3K/ is their most expensive kit, but the chemicals are only sodium bisulfate, sodium carbonate, potassium hexacyanoferrate, calcium hydroxide, ammonium iron sulfate, ammonium chloride, copper sulfate, litmus powder, sulfur, iron filings, potassium permanganate, potassium iodide, potassium bromide, sodium thiosulfate, activated charcoal.

[AdmSmith]

Those were the days when you could demonstrate liquid nitrogen with your bare hands. Professor Julius Sumner Miller from 1969.

14 min https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNShaIM_OZ8

More here
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCpgggEg1JgqTcRELKasY_IzU2jbRSiGy