Cool then, not PC now.
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.
If I were ten years old again, I’d be begging for a set like this. :’)
Cool then, not PC now.
I had the same result with a newly-mixed batch of black powder. Hadn’t ground the charcoal well enough, and a spark jumped from the test pile to the batch pile. Did it in the feed room of our chicken house; I exited quickly through the window...
I wasn’t brave enough to actually concoct something that would explode, but my friends and I DID make something that emitted giant clouds of purple smoke into our kitchen.
God only knows what it was...I wish I could remember what we put into it; I’m sure some Chemistry FReeper could tell me what we made.
Regards,
"Science Guy Bill Nye Killed In Massive Vinegar/Baking-Soda Explosion"
Check it out - it's quite entertaining.
A little older. The sets now make a particular thing, I don’t care for that.
Then there is
CUAAUGU
Thanks so much for that link.
Can’t thank you enough.
Didn’t think I’d see any mRNA base pairing on FR today. :)
CUAAUGU is backwards.
5’-GATTACA-3’
3’-CUAAUGU-5’
that’s just wicked...
Here’s a link, I think links are still OK
http://www.theonion.com/articles/science-guy-bill-nye-killed-in-massive-vinegarbaki,288/
Late bloomers huh?
Got my big Gilbert set while in the third grade in the fifties, we didn't know about mathematics, just arithmetic. But our reading skills were just fine. Enough to follow the cook book instructions for starters.
Grew some impressive strings of copper sulfate crystals, made gunpowder , a kind of sparkler, and twisted paper fuses, stink bombs. But exploring the uncharted regions of the Gilbert Chemistry set lead to some vile smelling dark compounds cooked up in the provided test tubes using the little alcohol lamp. The resultant slag defied all cleaning and scraping efforts.
I did discover that a certain combination of chemicals applied as a paste to a stainless steel butter knife and heated red hot over a gas burner resulted in a blue black finish which I found rather pleasing. A good thing, as I was forced to contemplate my discovery at every meal for a month, while having to use the back of a teaspoon to spread butter.
Pity that I didn't write down the mix proportions as decades later I spied the same finish on commercial door hardware.
Good fun for a long time.
I am a chemist, and I wish I had that book when I was a kid.
Yes. It should be fun over this Thanksgiving gathering.
I am a “biochemist without a license”.
Growing up I had nothing like this or these chemistry sets.
Any how, this is a great thread, but as far as this Kick Starter campaign, naw.
You know the motivation of anyone calling a science hobby store the HMS Beagle.
Impressively twisted.
Definitely dry.
I want you to know that you changed a life yet to come with that post. I’m sending that book to my daughter, who aspires to be an awesome mom. Thank you.
I had an erector set. Her name was Candace, and she had quite a set!
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