gilbert u - 238 atomic energy laboratory
cloud chamber from the a. c. gilbert u - 238 atomic energy lab, ca. 1950 .
til that the 1950 toy lab set
gilbert u - 238 atomic energy laboratory
contained uranium ore, polonium, a geiger counter and a cloud chamber .
til that the 1950 toy lab set
gilbert u - 238 atomic energy laboratory
contained uranium ore, polonium, a geiger counter and a cloud chamber. : todayilearned
go to gilbert atomic energy - part ii or back to the a. c. gilbert collection
the a. c. gilbert company’s u - 238 atomic energy lab might not have been the first, but it was the most elaborate, “atomic” educational set ever produced for children .
gilbert’s u - 238 atomic energy lab was the most elaborate atomic energy educational set ever produced. before gilbert introduced his own atomic energy lab in 1951, the american basic science club produced their atomic energy lab kit which came with real samples of uranium (which is radioactive) and radium (which is a million times more radioactive than uranium) .
the problem with the gilbert u - 238 atomic energy laboratory was that is was very expensive to make. it came in a brief case style box and had cool drawings of rutherford style atoms, with electrons whizzing by in
dr. gerald tape, commissioner of the u. s. atomic energy commission, washington ,
hake' s -
gilbert nuclear physics atomic energy lab
boxed 1951 set .
1949 press photo dr. walter bergholz at u. s. atomic energy lab, new brunswick nj
the effects of atomic weapons 1950 los alamos dept. of defense atomic energy co .
gilbert believes that energy atomic laboratory was unsuccessful because the lab was for those who had some educational background rather than the younger crowd that the a. c. gilbert company usually aimed for .
although the u - 238 atomic energy lab continued to appear in newspaper advertisements in 1952 and 1953, this was a matter of various stores unloading old stock at discount prices. by 1952 the gilbert toys american flyer trains catalog had replaced the u - 238 atomic energy lab with the no. 11 gilbert chemistry atomic energy set. although the latter was very large, its atomic energy component didn’t amount to much: some uranium ore, a spinthariscope and a copy of “atomic energy. ” in essence it was the same as what porter chemical company had done in 1947 with their chemcraft chemistry kit no. 25 .
nisiprius wrote: sneaky, u - 238 is just the model number of the kit, not one of the substances supplied .
u - 238 was also a short lived u boat, was in service about as long as this as this kit until it meet it demise in 1943, however it was just a diesel .
subject: 1950
gilbert atomic energy lab
toy category: science asked by: dacary - ga list price: $ 200. 00
u - 238 probably was one of the substances supplied, since the kit had
four uranium - bearing ore samples
, and
around 99. 284% of natural uranium is uranium - 238 ...
(
save atomic energy lab to get e - mail alerts and updates on your ebay feed .
one of the first things that will intrigue you when you open your atomic energy laboratory is the geiger counter, which is located in the upper right hand corner of the box .
and stop by linkstorm to see what happens when swaim sets up his own atomic energy lab .
nisiprius wrote: you can have your official red ryder carbine - action two - hundred - shot range model air rifle, give me a gilbert atomic energy lab .
real? not a hoax? it certainly looks 100% real. sneaky, u - 238 is just the model number of the kit, not one of the substances supplied .
not a lot of regulation was applied to these toys and food products… and some of the toys sold in this era were downright dangerous. this was a time, mind you, when little kids were allowed to own their own guns (bob clark’s a christmas story wasn’t entirely fictional, you know). many toys from the ’50s were covered in lead paint, possessed plenty of sharp edges, and in the case of the infamous gilbert u - 238 atomic energy laboratory, real radioactive isotopes .
the nuclear regulatory commission replaced the atomic energy commission (aec) in 1974. the aec was created shortly after wwii .
“the most spectacular of our new educational toys was the gilbert atomic energy laboratory. this was a top job, the result of much experimentation and hard work. we were unofficially encouraged by the government, who thought that our set would aid in public understanding of atomic energy and stress its constructive side. we had the great help of some of the country’s best nuclear physicists and worked closely with m. i. t. in it’s development .
the gilbert atomic energy kit was a wonderful and fascinating experience for me at a very early age. so much so that for the past 40 years my entire career was engaged in nuclear energy... still is. i never forgot that tin geiger counter. charles yulish
other gilbert sets (e. g. , the no. 11 atomic energy set) continued to carry the spinthariscope, the ore and the manual. in addition, the geiger counter could be purchased separately .
“it stresses the peace - time role of atomic energy... not a hint of the a - bomb in the whole kit. ”
sometime in late 1947, gilbert’s competitor, the porter chemical company, became the first to produce laboratory kits for children that included an atomic energy component. they seem to have done so with two sets: chemcraft chemistry kit no. 10 (ca. $ 10) and kit no. 25 (ca. $ 25) - get the numbering system ?
the nuclear regulatory commission replaced the atomic energy commission (aec) in 1974. the aec was created shortly after wwii. h. g. wells coined the term
atomic bomb
in 1914 used in his novel
. figure 1 - 8, the decay curve, illustrates the meaning of half life. the half life of a material is the period of time in which half of the initial amount of the radioactive material will have disappeared. thus, it will take 4. 5 billion years for 100 atoms of u - 238 to decay so that only 50 are left. at the end of another 4. 5 billion years only 25 of the initial 100 u - 238 atoms will be present .
but such meaningful science costs a lot of money, too much in fact, to make for a profitable toy product line. gilbert lost money with each sale. and even worse, nuclear physics is, well, nuclear physics, which means it’s pretty complex stuff, even for brainy children, and most simply could not understand what was going on. so, the set did not last for a long time in the marketplace. but there were certainly those kids and no doubt adults too, who loved the gilbert u - 238 atomic energy experimenters kit .
the atomic energy components of kit no. 10 were “actual specimens of uranium ore, “the story of atomic energy, ” [ and a ] spinthariscope. ” chemcraft’s top of the line, kit no. 25, also included a “radioactive screen. ” according to an account in the july 17, 1948 issue of the hagerstown daily mail, this use of the uranium ore required that porter chemical company obtain a license from the atomic energy commission .
gilbert claimed that he worked with nuclear physicists in making the atomic energy lab, and assured buyers that it was 100% safe. but while gilbert was interested in engineering and the sciences, he was a businessman and a successful toymaker first (he was also a magician), so he knew how to spin something negative when it needed spinning… and many modern skeptics aren’t sure how “safe” the atomic energy lab actually was. it did, after all, contain radioactive rocks .
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uranium through cheesecloth, over and over again. you wouldn' t believe how long it takes to separate out the u - 235
gilbert, of course, couldn' t be left behind and introduced their own atomic energy lab, which also came with radioactive samples and even a little geiger counter that kids could use to measure the amount of radiation left in their bodies after each play session .
this book was published in 1950 as a manual to accompany the gilbert atomic energy set that sold for only two years - 1950 and 1951. this set was gilbert' s most expensive at around $ 50. 00 retail, and even at that price, it lost money! but it was a beautiful set, and you can see a full color example
orau it was always doubtful whether gilbert and their mutated customers would be around after 50 years .
physicists customarily use an abbreviated unit for measuring gamma ray energy. this unit is called the
sold separately .
urltoken... cience. htm that site has a whole page of
atomic toys ,
but, alas, doesn' t distinguish the real atomic toys from the pretend atomic toys. urltoken... ictoys. htm
gilbert first announced the development of the atomic energy lab in february of 1950. although images of the first version were employed in newspaper advertisements as late as december of 1951, i believe that it had been replaced with the second red - cased version well before christmas of 1950 .
it probably became atomic energy in the first place because it was discovered 8 years before the nucleus was proposed as a concept and 35 years before it was conclusively linked ot nuclear fission .
the gilbert u - 238 atomic energy lab was staggeringly unpopular — probably due to its steep price — and most of the units had to be sold back to the company. not everyone was chagrined, however — evidently columbia university bought five of the units for their classroom lessons. used copies still sell on ebay to this very day, so if you have some active ore samples, you can give it a try, assuming it still works… and surely there’s nothing dangerous about feeding isotopes into 66 - year - old children’s toys, right? either way, it’s certainly not a way to turn your cat into a 50 - foot man - eating monster .
there was nothing phony about our atomic energy laboratory. it was genuine, and it was also safe. we used radioactive materials in the set, but none that might conceivably prove dangerous. there was a geiger - mueller counter. it was accurate; a carefully designed and manufactured instrument that could actually be used in prospecting for radioactive materials. the atomic energy lab also contained a cloud chamber in which the paths of alpha particles traveling at 12, 000 miles a second could be seen; a spinthariscope showing the results of radioactive disintegration on a fluorescent screen; an electroscope that measured the radioactivity of different substances .
the kit is obviously changing that little boy into a girl through the terrible power of atomic radiation .
also, if a kid was able to use his kit to locate more uranium for the u. s. government, they were promised $ 10, 000 .
there are literally thousands upon thousands of scientists today who became interested in their careers years ago through a gilbert science set .
gilbert radioactive source is held near the counter to produce a clicking in the headset. neon tube flashes simultaneously with clicks .
the excerpt below is from a. c. gilbert’s autobiography: “the man who lives in paradise” rinehard & company 1954 .
in 1956, i was six years old and a contestant on the rootie kazootie tv show. i won a gilbert atomic energy lab. i remember the geiger counter and all the fun i had with the set. it was like a small suit case and i often carried it around with me. i sure wish i still had it .
i wish i had saved the comic books my high school science teacher handed out, produced by ge and given to high school teachers for free, that explained nuclear energy and the wonders of the shippingport atomic power station .
for reference, a. c. gilbert' s discovery village in salem, oregon has one of the atomic energy lab toys. the home page is at... urltoken and
imagination station
, one of the permanent exhibits described at... urltoken includes this toy along with several others made by a. c. gilbert. if you are in oregon and have young children or are interested in toys, the village is a good place to spend an afternoon. - - maniac
if you have a gilbert u - 238, hang on it to it. from what i can tell from places that deal in collectibles, for instance, ebay, there is a big demand and they go for a lot of money. as a kid, i did own a gilbert chemistry set. in those days, chemistry sets had real (read potentially dangerous) chemicals in them and the science experiments were better than they are today. editorializing now, it seems to me that modern chemistry sets are weak conceptually, because the only types of chemicals included are
safe
or non - toxic ones which drastically reduces the scope and depth of the projects available .
some people better versed in atomic energy sciences than i have pointed out that the polonuim sources of the ore samples may have left them more radioactive than gilbert perhaps intended — leading to some potential poisoning problems. it’s generally agreed that if a child were to pulverize a radioactive ore sample and accidentally ingest the dust, they would not acquire super - powers… but instead become super - sick .
there were two versions of the atomic energy lab. the first (and rarest) was described in the 1950 gilbert toys american flyer trains catalog. it came with a tan - colored case. the second version, with a red case, appeared in the 1951 gilbert toys american flyer trains catalog. the contents in the two versions seem to have been the same, but they were arranged differently. a possible exception is that two different types of electroscope seem to have been used in the first version of the set .
gilbert' s kaster kits (yes, gilbert, the same people who gave you the glass blowing kit) allowed you to create your own army of tiny metallic minions... which sounds kinda awesome until you realize it involved casting them from molten lead by yourself .
just guessing, but
atomic
my have fallen out of use because of the invention of the h - bomb .
atomic
was not a good general term for referring to both the a - bomb and the h - bomb .
such a set can, indeed, become a stepping stone to a great future for you. don' t let the opportunity pass of seeing what a gilbert erector, chemistry, or other science set can do for you. visit you gilbert dealer as soon as you can .
and if you used up all the powder, maybe you could borrow some ammonium nitrate from your gilbert chemistry set for a bigger chemical reaction .
as a kid, did you ever swallow or at least put in your mouth a small piece of a toy or play set? did you grow an extra arm because of it? no? then you probably didn' t have the atomic energy lab .
the preceding text is an excerpt from a. c. gilbert' s autobiography :
the man who lives in paradise
rinehard & company 1954
, and more often a larger unit, one million electron volts is used. this is abbreviated one mev. this unit we shall use in talking about gamma rays. our atomic energy lab gamma source for example is found to emit a 1. 14 mev gamma ray .
request for question clarification by bobbie7 - ga on 17 aug 2002 21: 05 pdt david, as i said, i located the box from the gilbert atomic energy lab set. it is in very good condition for its age with only minor wear to the outside edges. the inside lid picture is perfect. please let me know if that would be acceptable to post as an answer. thank you - - bobbie7 - ga
airplane rides atomic energy lab bascule bridge battleships buses carousels christmas tree stand eiffel tower ferris wheels fire trucks greenberg' s guide half tracks lift bridge london tower bridge machine shops modern erector no. 8 zeppelin parachute jumps polar cub fans railroad bridges robots skydiver tanks tool shops video vintage erector zeppelins
but come on, this was a more innocent time. mr. gilbert probably never even thought that kids would use his sets for that sort of - -
the worst hand assembly criticality incident from an energy release perspective that i know the details of was kurtchatov sf - 7, in 1971. back of the envelope scribbling shows that it would have released the energy of roughly 100kg of tnt, but did so nonexplosively over a period of about six minutes .
didn' t like, particularly, the recent opera' dr. atomic' (same guy who did' nixon in china') .
there' s that gilbert guy again. this may look like a pretty safe (boring) science kit, but among the 56 chemicals included in the gilbert chemistry set was some potentially deadly stuff. like potassium permanganate, which, besides being poisonous, has been known to make things catch fire. or ammonium nitrate, the same chemical that the u. s. wants to regulate now because it' s used in homemade bombs. all that came in the same box - - at no point in history has being a young nerd on his birthday been so dangerous .
i built a cloud chamber later, when i got fascinated by high energy physics. coleman lantern mantles contained enough thorium at the time to be very impressive .
it caused quite a sensation at the toy fair and received a great deal of publicity. but there were difficulties. it had to be priced very high– $ 50. 00–and even at that price we managed to lose a little money on every one sold. the atomic energy lab was also the most thoroughly scientific toy we had ever produced, and only boys with a great deal of education could understand it. it was not suitable for the same age groups as our simpler chemistry and microscope sets, for instance, and you could not manufacture such a thing as a beginner’s atomic energy lab. so we had to drop this wonderful new addition to our line of educational toys–and toy has never seemed to me to be the right word to apply to such things. we adapted some of its features so that they could be added to our largest chemistry set–using the spinthariscope, some radioactive ore, and the atomic energy manual. ”
our goals are to ¶ showcase and celebrate the works of a. c. gilbert ¶ promote the heritage society by educating the public and by showing the works of our members .
i certainly would have wanted one of these when i was a kid, but i guess i was just a little too young. and $ 50 then is the equivalent of $ 435 today. i sure would have tried to talk my parent into it, though. (not my dad, it was my mom who was supportive about
science .
) you can have your official red ryder carbine - action two - hundred - shot range model air rifle, give me a gilbert atomic energy lab .
we are a group of collectors, model builders, and restorers who appreciate the products produced by a. c. gilbert (1884 - 1961), america' s greatest toymaker .
. these rays are quite different in their nature from gamma rays. they are actually sub - atomic particles traveling with very high speed. these new particles are called
all these samples except the autunite have been sealed in bottles so that you will not open them. the autunite is not sealed and you can remove the pieces from the jar. the other samples have been sealed for they tend to flake and crumble and you would run the risk of having radioactive ore spread out in your laboratory. this will raise the level of the background count. the autunite is sufficiently hard so that it does not crumble readily and you may handle it outside of the container. it is well, however, to place pieces of the ore in a thin paper sack so that small bits of the ore do not contaminate your laboratory .
of course, the wonder of atomic engineering was what earned this gilbert cloud chamber a reputation as “the world’s most dangerous toy. ” it was quickly pulled from the market, but the manufacturer continued to assure parents that the tiny bit of radioactive material included with each set was essentially harmless (probably about as harmful as exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun) .
you see, there was a different approach to nuclear power in the' 50s and early' 60s - - atomic energy was our friend and the way of the future, and it would never do anything to hurt us. however, it' s still hard to believe that anyone would entrust kids with radioactive material (even in small doses) .
the atomic energy lab was only around for one year to 1952. in addition, it was a relatively high price for the time ($ 50. 00). this was the reason given for its short lifespan as well as the sophistication of the lab. however even at $ 50. 00, the company lost money on every one sold .
clarification of question by dacary - ga on 18 aug 2002 07: 23 pdt dear bobbie7 - ga, thank you for your email. i' m sorry, but the gilbert atomic energy box alone wouldn' t qualify as an answer (if fact, there' s one being offered on ebay at this time), as per my question i asked for a lab that was
complete with all components ,
inclluding box, as this is what i' m looking for. but thank you for your interest and query. dacary - ga
uranium gives off 3, 000, 000 times as much energy as an equal weight of coal. it will not be 3. 000, 000 times as cheap because of processing expenses, if we are able to get the advantage of only one - tenth of one per cent of this output, coal will be more than 1000 times as expensive as uranium. with such a tremendous leeway atomic energy unquestionably will be made extremely cheap - - like' free air' at service stations .
john t, o' neill, 1945
i enjoyed reading about the atomic lab. i also recall a lassie show from the period where timmy gets contaminated by a missle. you might find my site rad urltoken interesting .
gilbert’s atomic energy lab came with four types of uranium ore, a beta - alpha source (pb - 210), a pure beta source (ru - 106), a gamma source (zn - 65 ?), a spinthariscope, a cloud chamber with its own short - lived alpha source (po - 210), an electroscope, a geiger counter, a manual, a comic book (learn how dagwood splits the atom) and a government manual “prospecting for uranium. ” using real radioactive materials, one could witness mist trails created by particles of ionizing radiation .
a. c. gilbert, who among other accomplishments, won the gold medal in pole vaulting at the 1908 olympic games in london, graduated from yale medical school and then, in what must have been a hard left turn on his life’s highway, started a toy manufacturing company. eventually, the a. c. gilbert company became the leader in the manufacture of construction and scientific toys like chemistry sets and erector sets .
there has been so much misinformation about radioactivity that we pause here to reassure you and your parents that the radioactive sources supplied to you are not dangerous in any way. they have been carefully designed by some of the nation’s top scientists to be instructive and harmless. we assure you that no harm will come to you through daily contact with the radioactive sources supplied with your atomic energy lab .
included with your atomic energy lab are four glass bottles containing samples of radioactive ore. sample no. 100 contains some pieces of carnotite taken from the colorado plateau region. carnotite is bright yellow in color. your sample, however, may be of greyish or brownish cast due to the presence of iron. consult your booklet, ‘prospecting for uranium, ” for more information about the occurrence of this ore .
radiation wasn’t well - understood by the public in the 1950s — even in the wake of the explosion of an atomic bomb. as a nation, we were still learning what all this radiation really meant; we didn’t understand how safe or unsafe it might be, or what could and couldn’t be done with it. this confusion can be seen in pop culture of the period — movie monsters of the ’50s were often spawned by radiation and atomic bombs, and comic book superheroes were gifted fantastic powers through radioactivity. gilbert clearly sought to bridge that knowledge gap, allowing kids to try out radiation for themselves, and remove the godzilla - sized stigma attached to it .
if such a set were to be offered today, it would probably be even more expensive in today' s dollars, even assuming that it could be marketed. the cost of even a simple geiger counter would be quite expensive, and the atomic sources needed to complete most of the experiments are very expensive as well, and are much more extensively regulated than in 1950. however, some atomic sources are available to educators and hobbyists. see
yes, i had a gilbert chemistry set as a child in the 50' s. i also had a manual for gilbert' s hydraulic set, which apparently consisted of various small pipes, valves, and balloons. the manual included instructions for building several different kinds of water cannons. i remember thinking that this sounded extremely cool, and wishing that i actually owned the set, not just the manual. does anyone else remember this? btw, i hope those electrons were in elliptical orbits, not parabolic ones !
orbits, on its cover. inside was the apparatus that allowed boys and girls to “see the paths of alpha particles speeding at 12, 000 miles per second! ” and “watch actual atomic disintegration – right before your eyes! ”
back in the 1950’s, at the height of the cold war there was all sorts of amateur atomic experimentation going on. i guess it was a sort of “know thy enemy” attempt at making peace with a suddenly much too dangerous world .
after remaining popular for the first half of the 20th century, gilbert chemistry sets fell from grace in the' 60s and' 70s (following a series of entirely predictable lawsuits). however, at one point these hazardous kits were endorsed by both good housekeeping and superman himself .
the advantage of having a convenient unit for talking about gamma rays is that we no longer have to be so vague as to say, “in this experiment we use a soft gamma ray... “ rather we can be accurate and say “here we use a 0. 35 mev gamma ray... . ” the larger the mev of a gamma ray, the greater is its half thickness and the greater is its penetrating power. gamma rays having energy above one mev are usually thought of as being high energy rays .
dear letterrip, thank you for your email of 09 / 09. yes, i would appreciate receiivng information on the gilbert lab and chemcraft set - - particularly the lab. please feel free to post info and i' ll post comment in response. thanks again, dacary - ga
its high price (ca. $ 50. 00) and sophistication were the reasons gilbert gave for the set' s short lifespan: 1950 and 1951. today, it is so highly prized by collectors that a complete set can easily go for more than 100 times the original price .
for radiation workers is 50 millisieverts in any one year, that
1 sv = risk of cancer later in life (5 in 100 )
and
10 sv = risk of death within days or weeks .
so, if the level in his laboratory was 1000x background, that' s pretty serious stuff and the authorities were not overreacting with regard to the cleanup - - but, depending on how much time he spent at what distance from his
reactor ,
it' s quite possible he wouldn' t have had any obvious harm done .
yet, the atomic energy lab kit produced by the american basic science club came with real samples of uranium (which is radioactive) and radium (which is a million times more radioactive than uranium). since the mere presence of radioactive material in a children' s product clearly wasn' t insane enough, some of the experiments detailed in the manual also required kids to handle blocks of dry ice. dry ice, by the way, has a temperature of minus 109. 3 degrees fahrenheit, and it' s recommended that it only be handled while wearing gloves (none were included) .
keep in mind that in order to be able to change the shape of the glass, first it has to reach its softening point, which is around 1, 000 degrees fahrenheit. the gilbert glass blowing set encouraged children to try this with their bare hands in order to carry out a series of wildly irresponsible experiments detailed in the manual :
the lab came equipped with a geiger - mueller radiation counter, a wilson cloud chamber (to see paths of alpha particles), a spinthariscope (to see
live
radioactive disintegration), four samples of uranium - bearing ores, and an electroscope to measure radioactivity. it also included a comic book featuring dagwood bumstead (the man who couldn’t leave his own house without knocking the mailman down) describing how to split an atom. the atomic energy lab’s main drawback, other than possible radiation poisoning, was its price tag: a whopping $ 49. 50, which would be over $ 300 in today’s dollars .
sir, i believe i have a lead that can find both the gilbert lab, and the chemcraft item that has expired, if you like i can post the contact information here (i can wait till the item expires, since i don' t wish to interfere with other researchers and i' m not a googlnaut ...) letterrip
perhaps by now the user of the atomic energy lab has been impatient to explore the properties of the radioactive sources marked alpha, beta, and gamma. first, bring the source labeled alpha up to the counter. note that it has no recognizable effect on the counter. this should not disturb the user for there is nothing wrong with the source. it means that the type of ray emitted by this source is much different from the gamma ray. we call it the alpha ray. alpha rays are easily absorbed in any solid substance or even in air and they are not able to penetrate the wails of the geiger counter .
ahhh, but let us not forget the chemcraft atomic energy kit from the porter chemical company (later lionel / porter) of hagerstown, md! sort of off the subject, i was astounded * to find that an entire book had been published about the chemcraft co. , the chemcraft story: the legacy of harold porter (review here, about midway down the page) and that some people attribute their professional careers to science kits such as these. * astounded because i' m related to the porter family in convoluted ways. their gift of a basic chemcraft kit set off a lifelong fascination with science and, well, underground technology .
in 1903 p. curie found that radium had a daily heat output equivalent to the explosive power of it weight in tnt, and this output went on for thousands of years with a 1600 year half life. that got everybody' s attention and led h. g. wells to speculate about an atomic bomb .
you will find several small plastic sources mounted inside your atomic energy lab. one of these is marked radioactive standard - gamma source. remove this source from the lab and bring it close to the geiger counter. when you do this you will note that the number of flashes or clicks will increase rapidly until you can hardly count them. removing the source will cause the clicking sound or the flashing light to slow down. later on we will go into detail and explain what the clicks and flashes are and what they mean. meanwhile, we will merely say that each click or flash corresponds to the detection of a radioactive ray going through the geiger counter .
as a result of our war - time development of atomic energy the element uranium has assumed great importance in our national affairs. uranium is a very heavy metallic element, but it does not occur in metallic form in nature. nevertheless, there are over 100 minerals which are uranium bearing. these are widely distributed over the face of the earth. there are, however, only very few deposits of uranium ore which are rich in uranium. most of the uranium which has been mined has been taken from veins of pitchblende located as follows: shinkolobwe in the belgian congo, eldorado in canada, and. joachimsthal in bohemia. in these localities, especially in the belgian congo, uranium occurs in very rich deposits .
the lab contained a cloud chamber that allowed the viewer to watch alpha particles travel at 12, 000 miles per second, aspinthariscope that showed the results of radioactive disintegration on a fluorescent screen and an electroscope that measured the radioactivity of different substances that were in the set. this toy is looked upon as being dangerous because of the radioactive material in the set, but gilbert claims that none of the materials could conceivably prove dangerous
baby boomers are a hardy bunch. they rode in cars that weren’t equipped with special toddler seats, walked to and from school without being electronically tethered to their parents, ate lunches filled with allergens and preservatives, played with toys that would be quickly pulled from shelves today, and still persevered to become the largest living generation of the u. s. population. whether you owned a johnny seven one man army or just want to know more about the ultra - violent, bestselling toy of 1964, let' s take a look back at some of the dangerous toys of yesteryear and the commercials that sold them .
the world set free
is a pretty lousy novel if i remember correctly - - i did slog through it one) is this once; wells at his delusions - of - grandeur worst. atomic bombs are mentioned throughout. the mechanism is standard science - fiction double - talk, involving an element named
carolinium
and an impossible detail: wells' fictional bombs release power
nisiprius wrote: blender? he had a blender? lucky stiff. i had to press my uranium through cheesecloth, over and over again. you wouldn' t believe how long it takes to separate out the u - 235 that way. i never did get it up to fissile grade, and i lost in the science fair to a kid from a farm who used a cream separator to spin it down. i wonder now why i didn' t think to use the picture tube from the tv set, but i didn' t have any big enough magnets anyway and my folks never did like me playing with picture tubes .
when i contemplate what was done then, and in how short a time, during wartime, i believe that some of our other' problems' like the environmental, could be solved by a similar' crash' application of all our resources to create and to deploy the needed technologies (the david mckay book' sustainable energy: without the hot air' is a great read on this, available free on line) .
when you hear the phrase ‘chemistry set’, what is the first image that pops into your head? is it one of a mad scientist in a dark laboratory full of pieces of glassware bubbling over? is it your high school or college chemistry lab? for many, the phrase evokes a time of exploration and experimentation, a time where a child could be and do anything they could imagine. although first and foremost to be a toy providing hours of entertainment, chemistry sets also allowed children to interact intimately with science. it is these interactions that led many to go on to become famous chemists and physicists. by studying these sets – their content, the imagery surrounding them and the people that used them – we can hopefully better understand how society viewed, and continues to view, science .
it' s relatively easy to induce a criticality excursion with blocks of heu or, more commonly, heu in aqueous solutions (the water acts as a moderator). this would irradiate the surrounding area and probably kill the person performing the assembly (it' s happened a number of times over the years, see the johnstonarchive list of criticality incidents). my memory here is fuzzy but you really need assembly faster than the human body is capable of in order to create an actual detonation or even a sizable fizzle, i remember working this out in a physics class many years ago. it' s much easier with u than with pu, but you still need mechanical assistance .
clarification of question by dacary - ga on 03 sep 2002 12: 59 pdt hi, thanks for contacting me again. since i' m wanting to write a book on 1950s toys with an atomic age focus, and with pictures, i' d like to focus first on finding as complete a set as possible. i can always work down, if i can' t find a complete set. i hope that answers your question. dave
greetings! other than locating the meccano company which bought out gilbert, i could find no complete lab online for sale (and meccano may not have one but it never hurts to ask). have you contacted them for details? if not, here is their contact information (and thank you for enlightening my knowledge on this unique product !): meccano s. n. 92 - 98, boulevard victor hugo 92110 clichy - france túl: (33) 1 41 40 98 60 fax: (33) 1 41 40 98 79
let us first measure the absorption of beta particles in some light material such as cardboard take some stiff cardboard, not of the corrugated variety and cut up a dozen or so pieces large enough to cover the beta source. prop up the beta source by taping it to a little paper box and face it toward the side of the geiger counter which contains the geiger counter tube. place the geiger counter about 12 inches or so from the source. at this distance you will get a counting rate of about 100 or more c. p. m. now place one piece of cardboard after another between the source and the counter taking a reading for each absorber added. you will find that a one centimeter layer (a little larger than 1 / 3 of an inch) of cardboard absorbs most of the beta rays. twice as many centimeters of cardboard absorbs the beta rays completely. use the plastic rule supplied with your atomic energy lab in order to change from inches to centimeters .
( see p. 3 below .) his words were probably true, and the fact is that there remains a great deal of misinformation about the relative dangers of nuclear energy and certain radioactive materials, with some even going so far as to classify this set as one of the most dangerous toys ever. regardless, while many of these experiments or similar could be done at home, they are probably best left to the high school or college lab, due to both the cost and need to handle nuclear materials safely .
in order to eliminate some of these sources of radioactivity let us surround the geiger counter with layers of heavy substances on all sides. allow the cord to the ear phones to come out one side of shielding material so that the counting rate may be measured. lead is an ideal substance for you to use for this experiment, but since you may not have this in your home, you may substitute another material such as iron or copper. if you happen to be an apartment dweller with no such items at hand, then you may perform the experiment in your science laboratory at school. shielding the counter on all sides with an inch or two of solid lead, or with a thicker layer of less dense material, would be expected to reduce the radiation from sources in the vicinity of the counter. it would not, of course, shield against the radio active materials in the counter itself, but, we can easily show by using another geiger counter that the radioactivity of the instrument itself is very small .
2. ^ a b oppenheimer spoke these words in the television documentary the decision to drop the bomb (1965). [ 5 ] in the literature, the quote normally appears in the form shatterer of worlds, because this was the form in which it first appeared in print, in time magazine on november 8, 1948. [ 6 ] it later appeared in robert jungk' s brighter than a thousand suns: a personal history of the atomic scientists (1958), [ 7 ] which was based on an interview with oppenheimer. [ 8 ] j. robert oppenheimer
if no hum from the vibrator is heard after these checks are made, the chances are that the vibrator has been damaged or has failed. however, it may happen that the vibrator will work properly but the instrument will not respond to the radioactive gamma source. make sure that it is the gamma source that you are using. if the neon tube does not flash at all the counter requires repair. if the neon tube flashes almost continuously in the absence of the radioactive source it also requires repair. do not attempt to shake the box or otherwise fix the geiger counter, return it to the a. c. gilbert company as per instructions given in the appendix .
request for question clarification by silviares - ga on 03 sep 2002 08: 57 pdt hello dacary - ga i tried contacting some collectors and one of them included this line in his answer
.... i have a nice one in my collection, but wasn' t planning to sell it... .
i would like to know if you want to pursue this lead and if so you should tell me how much you are willing to offer. unless you want to take it from here, if this is the case i could give you the email address of the collector. also the ac gilbert discovery village has one urltoken but i don' t think they are selling it. silviares
as a gamma ray whizzes through matter it completely disregards the atoms of the matter through which it is passing; that is, until it finally makes one collision with a single atom. then it hands over all of its energy to an electron in this atom. thereupon, the electron is quickly stopped because it, unlike a gamma ray, does not disregard the influence of atoms around it. when a gamma ray is emitted from the gamma source, it may either travel through a fraction of an inch in the wood or it may travel through all twelve inches. on the average, considering the mass behavior of thousands of gamma rays, there is a higher probability, however, that the gamma ray will be stopped in the first few layers of the absorber .
to my mind radio - activity is a real disease of matter. moreover, it is a contagious disease. it spreads. you bring those debased and crumbling atoms near others and those too presently catch the trick of swinging themselves out of coherent existence... . i am haunted by a grotesque fancy of the ultimate eating away and dry - rotting and dispersal of all our world. so that while man still struggles and dreams his very substance will change and crumble from beneath him. i mention this here as a queer persistent fancy. suppose, indeed, that is to be the end of our planet; no splendid climax and finale, no towering accumulation of achievements, but just - - atomic decay !
never before in the history of warfare had there been a continuing explosive; indeed, up to the middle of the twentieth century the only explosives known were combustibles whose explosiveness was due entirely to their instantaneousness; and these atomic bombs which science burst upon the world that night were strange even to the men who used them. those used by the allies were lumps of pure carolinum, painted on the outside with unoxidised cydonator inducive enclosed hermetically in a case of membranium. a little celluloid stud between the handles by which the bomb was lifted was arranged so as to be easily torn off and admit air to the inducive, which at once became active and set up radio - activity in the outer layer of the carolinum sphere. this liberated fresh inducive, and so in a few minutes the whole bomb was a blazing continual explosion .
request for question clarification by silviares - ga on 03 sep 2002 13: 16 pdt hi dave first of all i followed your directions in the clarification to my first request and sent a new email to the first collector trying to find out if the person is really willing to sell and what the price would be. i' m waiting for a reply. second, in regard to your last clarification, if all you need are detailed pictures then one of the collectors i contacted suggested the following
... the other possibility that comes to mind is to take an extended series of high resolution digital pictures of a complete set, documents, etc. and compliment the pictures with some promotional literature from the manufacturer... .
if that is the case you can probably contact the ac gilbert discovery village. urltoken as i said they have one, they are probably not willing to sell it but you should be able to get detailed pictures. silviares
the gilbert u-238 atomic energy lab is a toy lab set that was produced by alfred carlton gilbert , who was an american athlete , magician , toy-maker , business man , and inventor of the well-known erector set . the atomic energy lab was released by the a.c. gilbert company in 1950 . the kit 's intention was to allow children to create and watch nuclear and chemical reactions using radioactive material . 
the gilbert u-238 atomic energy lab is a toy lab set that was produced by alfred carlton gilbert, who was an american athlete, magician, toy-maker, business man, and inventor of the well-known erector set. the atomic energy lab was released by the a.c. gilbert company in 1950. the kit's intention was to allow children to create and watch nuclear and chemical reactions using radioactive material.
the gilbert u-238 atomic energy lab is a toy lab set that was produced by alfred carlton gilbert, who was an american athlete, magician, toy-maker, business man, and inventor of the well-known erector set. the atomic energy lab was released by the a.c. gilbert company in 1950. the kit's intention was to allow children to create and watch nuclear and chemical reactions using radioactive material.