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Chemistry set Kickstarter looks to recapture the wonder of days gone by
Geek.com ^ | Nov 14, 2013 | Graham Templeton

Posted on 11/23/2013 8:47:19 AM PST by 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.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; Technical
KEYWORDS: chemistry; science; technology
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To: BerryDingle

LMAO!

I had fun with my Gilbert Chemistry Set in the 50s, especially since Dad’s a Chemical Engineer.


41 posted on 11/23/2013 10:21:21 AM PST by Carriage Hill (Peace is that brief glorious moment in history, when everybody stands around reloading.)
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To: EEGator

Sure, me too, but those were the days...


42 posted on 11/23/2013 10:22:38 AM PST by AdmSmith (GCTGATATGTCTATGATTACTCAT)
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To: AdmSmith

One would probably get DHS’d for having that set now.


43 posted on 11/23/2013 10:31:53 AM PST by EEGator
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To: AdmSmith; All
thanks, for the post.

44 posted on 11/23/2013 10:32:34 AM PST by skinkinthegrass (The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun..0'Caligula / 0'Reid / 0'Pelosi 8-)
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To: AdmSmith

Oh man, the wonderful hours I spent with that set and the ruined bedroom ceiling. I’ve heard Heathkit may be coming back.


45 posted on 11/23/2013 10:35:10 AM PST by dljordan (WhoVoltaire: "To find out who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize.")
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To: AdmSmith
The Man Who Changed How Boys and Toys Were Made:
The Life and Times of A. C. Gilbert, the Man Who Saved Christmas


46 posted on 11/23/2013 10:35:35 AM PST by Iron Munro (When a killer screams 'Allahu Akbar' you don't need to be mystified about a motive.)
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To: TXnMA

Thank the lawyers, first and foremost.


47 posted on 11/23/2013 10:36:45 AM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: BerryDingle

“Better Living Through Chemistry”


48 posted on 11/23/2013 10:36:46 AM PST by EEGator
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To: centurion316

I melted elemental sulfur in one of my mom’s silver spoons. The silver sulfide tarnish never came off.


49 posted on 11/23/2013 10:38:39 AM PST by ccmay (Too much Law; not enough Order.)
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To: bigbob; centurion316

I recall discovering some forgotten highway flares and being very disappointed that disassembling them and throwing the powder in a campfire did not do much.


50 posted on 11/23/2013 10:40:47 AM PST by ccmay (Too much Law; not enough Order.)
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To: Rebelbase

I never could get saltpeter, but potassium permanganate for the rust filter was a great oxidizer substitute...


51 posted on 11/23/2013 10:41:25 AM PST by Free Vulcan (Vote Republican! You can vote Democrat when you're dead...)
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To: AdmSmith

The best part of having a chemistry set when I was a kid was mixing stuff at random just to see what would happen.

That’s true experimentation.


52 posted on 11/23/2013 10:42:50 AM PST by Fresh Wind (The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.)
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To: ClearCase_guy
Finally, I got to a web page with a dollar amount -- $77,000!!! After I picked myself off the ground I finally realized that this was a kickstart campaign, to get seed money, to start a business

Not too long ago at a yard sale I bought a complete 1950's AC Gilbert Chemistry set including microscope, slides, etc. for $3.00.

It looks as if it was opened but never used.

I have been offered $100 for it but am hanging on to it.


53 posted on 11/23/2013 10:43:25 AM PST by Iron Munro (When a killer screams 'Allahu Akbar' you don't need to be mystified about a motive.)
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To: AdmSmith

I thought all useful laboratory glassware was now treated as a controlled substance due to the meth epidemic??


54 posted on 11/23/2013 10:43:57 AM PST by ccmay (Too much Law; not enough Order.)
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To: Fresh Wind
The best part of having a chemistry set when I was a kid was mixing stuff at random just to see what would happen.

What could possibly go wrong?


55 posted on 11/23/2013 10:44:50 AM PST by dfwgator (Fire Muschamp.)
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To: AdmSmith
Anybody have one of these laying around the house? I'm looking for one. They're worth a bundle if complete.


56 posted on 11/23/2013 10:49:34 AM PST by Fresh Wind (The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.)
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To: AdmSmith

I’m in my la 60s & got a Gilbert chemistry set at about age 10. It had all the chemicals in it to make working gunpowder, not a lot, but enough to make a firecracker big enough to make a tin can jump 10+ feet.

Today’s sets only have tests for acids & bases, sodium bicarbonate to make fizzy water and some other benign changes. Darn lawyers & nanny government have taken out the fun of being a boy child!


57 posted on 11/23/2013 10:49:53 AM PST by RicocheT (Where neither their property nor their honor is touched, most men live content, Niccolo Machiavelli)
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To: centurion316

“The dream of every red blooded American kid was to discover some chemistry set concoction that would EXPLODE. That was certainly my quest and I threw all the stuff under the kitchen sink into the mix as well. Nothing worked, but burning sulfur poured over model airplanes was pretty neat.”

I never had a chemistry set but I used to go to the drug store and buy everything I needed to make black powder for my rockets,small bombs, and firecrackers.


58 posted on 11/23/2013 10:52:06 AM PST by dalereed
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To: AdmSmith

Now that’s a MUCH better set than the Gilbert that I got when I was 10.


59 posted on 11/23/2013 10:55:37 AM PST by chesley
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To: AdmSmith

I love this. It brings back some very fond memories ( for me not the folks)


60 posted on 11/23/2013 10:59:14 AM PST by Nifster
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