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Make your own Chemistry lab
Posted on | July 24, 2009 | No Comments
How good were the old [chemistry] sets? They were certainly more exciting, stocked with iodine and nitrates good for making unstable explosives or homemade rocket motors. Chlorine and cyanide compounds could emit deadly gases. A few chemicals turned out to cause cancer.
Kits from the 1920s to the 60s might include radioactive uranium, deadly sodium cyanide, or pure magnesium foil that burns at 4,000°F, with manuals that told how to mix up gunpowder or melt sand red-hot to blow your own glass test tubes. The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments debuted in 1960, packed with risky experiments. Its 19th-century predecessor, The Boy’s Own Book, had 20-plus pages of chemistry and fireworks recipes.
People tolerated more risk back then, but in exchange, generations of young experimenters were rewarded with deeper discoveries, bigger thrills, and the satisfaction of daring to achieve something important for the future.
Rocketry, nuclear energy, plastics — new sciences that were changing the world — were all highlighted in popular chemistry sets of the mid-20th century. Many of today’s scientists and engineers trace their careers back to the excitement of that first set.
via Make: Online : Great balls of fire! Make your own Chemistry lab….
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