Kids' Chemistry Sets: KABOOM!

Summary

Episode Summary: Kids' Chemistry Sets: KABOOM!

Podcast Title: Stuff You Should Know
Host/Author: iHeartPodcasts
Episode: Kids' Chemistry Sets: KABOOM!

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Introduction

In this engaging episode of Stuff You Should Know, hosts Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant delve into the fascinating history and evolution of chemistry sets designed for children. From their origins in the 18th century to their decline in popularity due to safety concerns, Josh and Chuck explore how these kits have shaped young minds and the field of chemistry itself.

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Historical Origins of Chemistry Sets

Early Beginnings (18th Century)

• 00:51-04:12: The discussion begins with the roots of chemistry sets, tracing them back to Johann Friedrich August Gutling's "A Portable Chest of Chemistry" in 1789. Initially intended for university students and professional chemists, these early sets were comprehensive, containing 35 chemicals, a balance for weighing, a mortar and pestle, and a booklet with 150 experiments.

  Notable Quote:

  Chuck Bryant [03:28]: "This is a pretty fun one. We're going to talk about the history of chemistry sets which, believe it or not, go back to the 18th century when they were called chemical chests."

Transition to Amusement

• 04:18-08:42: By the early 19th century, chemistry sets began incorporating elements of showmanship and magic to make them more appealing. Chemist Frederick Ackham introduced "Accum's Chest of Chemical Amusement," blending scientific experiments with entertaining demonstrations, a trend mirrored by public figures like Faraday.

  Notable Quote:

  Chuck Bryant [07:24]: "A lot of legit Nobel winning chemists over the years got their start in chemistry sets."

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Chemistry Sets for Kids: The 20th Century Boom

Marketing to Young Boys

• 09:00-13:30: Entering the 20th century, chemistry sets were aggressively marketed towards young boys as the first step toward becoming professional chemists. Companies like Chemcraft and Gilbert became prominent players, with sets priced between $1.50 to $10 (equivalent to $40 to $300 today). These kits featured robust materials such as glass test tubes and metal scales, and included comprehensive manuals with exciting experiments like the "Combination of Elements" and "Fire Ink."

  Notable Quote:

  Josh Clark [33:16]: "So they started selling even better than they ever had before."

Gender Segregation in Marketing

• 27:50-32:12: The hosts highlight the inherent sexism in early chemistry sets, noting that products were explicitly marketed to boys, with little to no consideration for girls. Even when sets for girls were introduced, they were often relegated to making perfumes rather than fostering an interest in chemistry.

  Notable Quote:

  Chuck Bryant [27:56]: "Gilbert chemistry sets are not intended for children who cannot read and understand the accompanying instruction books."

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Safety Concerns and Regulatory Changes

Dangers of Early Chemistry Sets

• 19:05-22:52: Josh and Chuck discuss the hazardous chemicals included in early sets, such as iodine solution, ammonium nitrate, and sodium cyanide, which posed serious health and safety risks. Experiments often involved making flammable substances, smoke bombs, and even rudimentary chemical weapons.

  Notable Quote:

  Josh Clark [20:27]: "You could make gunpowder... you could make a chemical weapon in your bedroom if you knew what you were doing."

Lack of Safety Gear

• 20:33-22:12: Early chemistry sets lacked essential safety equipment like goggles, increasing the risk of accidents. The manuals did include some safety warnings, but these were often insufficient given the dangerous nature of the experiments.

  Notable Quote:

  Chuck Bryant [30:04]: "Knocking on the door and being, like, still alive in there."

Legislation and Decline

• 40:39-43:25: Growing awareness of the dangers associated with chemistry sets led to stricter regulations in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Child Protection Act of 1966 allowed for the banning of hazardous toys, contributing to a sharp decline in the popularity and sales of traditional chemistry sets.

  Notable Quote:

  Chuck Bryant [41:15]: "The US department of Health, Education and Welfare, they estimated that toys, just all toys, caused about 700,000 injuries a year."

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Modern Chemistry Sets and Legacy

Watered-Down Kits

• 42:10-44:33: In response to safety concerns, manufacturers began producing chemistry sets with non-hazardous ingredients, such as vinegar and baking soda, and removed dangerous chemicals. These modern kits often included safety goggles and simplified experiments, making them more suitable for children but less challenging for aspiring chemists.

  Notable Quote:

  Josh Clark [44:33]: "And a folded up nanny who came out of the box to hover while all these experiments are going on."

Nostalgia and Continued Interest

• 46:13-49:06: Despite the decline, there has been a resurgence of interest in chemistry sets among homeschoolers and science enthusiasts. Premium sets like the Chem C 3000 offer advanced experiments for a higher price, aiming to reignite the passion for chemistry in the younger generation.

  Notable Quote:

  Chuck Bryant [46:43]: "Pretty neat. I also saw one other reason that chemistry sets kind of got watered down over the years are meth labs."

Enduring Impact

• 41:52-43:25: The hosts emphasize the lasting influence of chemistry sets on many successful scientists and chemists. Renowned figures like Oliver Sacks credited chemistry sets for inspiring their interest in science, underscoring the educational value these kits provided despite their risks.

  Notable Quote:

  Oliver Sacks [Recorded Quote]: "I do not think there can be any adequate substitute for having a chemistry set or a little chemistry lab and doing experiments oneself, thinking them out, taking responsibility for them, and occasionally facing risks too."

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Cultural Reflections and Personal Anecdotes

Sexism in Science Education

• 30:04-32:12: The conversation touches on the broader issue of sexism in science education, noting that efforts to encourage girls into chemistry often fell short, assigning them to less rigorous and less scientifically relevant activities.

  Notable Quote:

  Josh Clark [31:57]: "A lab technician, yeah... they weren't encouraging you to, like, reach for the stars and become a scientist."

Personal Stories and Listener Mail

• 47:23-49:45: The episode concludes with heartfelt listener contributions, including Chuck Bryant sharing his personal experiences and the positive impact the podcast has had on his life. These anecdotes add a human touch to the discussion, highlighting the personal connections listeners have with the content.

  Notable Quote:

  Chuck Bryant [47:13]: "Hey, everybody got hooked on your show in 2019... you've been with me and my wife through some big life events."

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Conclusion

Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant provide a comprehensive exploration of children's chemistry sets, highlighting their historical significance, inherent dangers, and the societal changes that led to their decline. Through engaging discussions and insightful anecdotes, the episode underscores the delicate balance between fostering scientific curiosity and ensuring safety. As chemistry sets continue to evolve, the legacy of these educational tools remains a testament to their impact on generations of budding scientists.

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Key Takeaways

• Origins and Evolution: Chemistry sets began as professional tools and transitioned into educational toys for children, primarily boys.
• Safety Concerns: Early sets contained hazardous chemicals without adequate safety measures, leading to accidents and legislative changes.
• Cultural Impact: Despite their dangers, chemistry sets inspired many future scientists and remain a nostalgic symbol of hands-on science education.
• Modern Developments: Contemporary chemistry sets prioritize safety with non-toxic materials, catering to homeschoolers and science enthusiasts.

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Recommended for Listeners Who Enjoy:

• Educational History: Understanding the evolution of educational tools and their societal impacts.
• Science and Safety: Balancing scientific exploration with safety considerations.
• Cultural Reflections: Examining the role of gender in science education and toy marketing.

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Further Reading & Resources:

• "Going Deep with David Ries" - Explore more about David Reese's contributions to electronics and chemistry.
• Oliver Sacks' Works - Gain insights from one of the most influential neurologists and authors influenced by chemistry sets.
• Chem C 3000 by Thames & Kosmos - Discover advanced modern chemistry sets for aspiring young scientists.

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Stay tuned for more episodes where Josh and Chuck uncover the intriguing stories behind everyday knowledge.

Transcript

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[Chuck Bryant]

More.

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[Josh Clark]

Welcome to Stuff youf Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh and there's Chuck. Jerry's here too, floating around somewhere out there. And that makes the stuff you should know.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right, you thought of this one. And Dave helped us out with the research on chemistry sets. I will go ahead and just say that I never had a chemistry set, but you know darn well that somebody in my family did.

[Josh Clark]

Was it Scott?

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, of course he did. He was voted most likely to have a chemistry set in preschool.

[Josh Clark]

That's awesome. Did he do anything magical with it?

[Chuck Bryant]

No, I mean, I just remember him having it and it being around the house and, you know, he's just always had a more scientifically minded brain than me and has always been smarter than me from the drop. So he was into chemistry sets and I was into baseball cards.

[Josh Clark]

Well, I was into baseball cards too. I was going to say don't feel bad because I didn't have a chemistry set either, but I did have an electrical set, like the electrical version of a chemistry set where you do all sorts of stuff. And I distinctly remember just hitting it with a hammer because I had no idea what was going on with that thing.

[Chuck Bryant]

You can't build a circuit.

[Josh Clark]

No. You could put a gun to my head and be like, build a circuit. And I just start hitting it with a hammer. I think you know who got good.

[Chuck Bryant]

At that is a friend of the show and pal of ours in real life, David Reese. Oh, yeah, he got into circuitry and like, building and refurbishing old, like, musical electronics and pedals and stuff like that.

[Josh Clark]

What an interesting dude. If you don't know who Dave Reese is, go look up what's the name of his book about artisanal pencil sharpening.

[Chuck Bryant]

I think it's how to sharpen pencils. He also had a great TV show that I'm not sure if you can find it, but you can try, called Going Deep with David Ries.

[Josh Clark]

Man, it was so good.

[Chuck Bryant]

You know, it's like how to shake someone's hand, stuff like that. Seems very intuitive, but not through David's odd point of view.

[Josh Clark]

He also was on Dicktown with Hodgman, right?

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. And he can build the heck out of a circuit. I bet you had a chemistry set, too.

[Josh Clark]

Very nice. I know that Dave Roos, who helps us with this, said that he had one of those electronic sets, too. Dave's pretty sharp, so I'm presuming he didn't hit it with the hammer, but.

[Chuck Bryant]

This is a pretty fun one. We're going to talk about the history of chemistry sets which, believe it or not, go back to the 18th century when they were called chemical chests. But this was pre. Let's make this a toy for kids. It was like, hey, if you're a university student or a professional or amateur young chemist, budding chemist.

[Josh Clark]

Do you like to wear capes?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, exactly. You like a smock? Get a chemistry set.

[Josh Clark]

Right. So the first one, actually, they traced it back to a guy named. You're going to make me say his name, huh? Watch this.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Johann Friedrich August Gutling.

[Chuck Bryant]

Hey, not bad.

[Josh Clark]

What do you mean, not bad? That was dead on the nose.

[Chuck Bryant]

I think it was perfect.

[Josh Clark]

I think I can hear our German listeners giving me a standing ovation right now.

[Chuck Bryant]

Ah, wunderbar.

[Josh Clark]

He came up with a chemistry chest In, I think, 1789, if I didn't say that already. And it was called, get ready for this, A portable chest of chemistry or a complete collection of chemical tests for the use of chemists, physicians, mineralogists, metallurgists, scientific artists, manufacturers, farmers and cultivators of natural philosophy and party boys.

[Chuck Bryant]

And again, this thing wasn't a toy. It had 35 chemicals, had a very robust balance, like a balance for weighing things, had a mortar and pestle. Of course, it had a book. And this is kind of, as you'll see, key with all chemistry sets is they come with a book of experiments. Otherwise you're just going to be dangerous. You might be anyway. But this one had about 150 experiments. And interestingly, had this platinum foil included that they would not include now because this stuff was very valuable. I believe in today dollars it'd be worth about 1000 bucks. Wow.

[Josh Clark]

If the price is right.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right.

[Josh Clark]

The reason they include platinum foil is platinum is a really valuable and useful catalyst in a lot of chemical reactions. It wasn't just to like show off.

[Chuck Bryant]

No, of course not.

[Josh Clark]

So there were other early chemistry sets too. Like you said, they were for grown ups, they were for chemistry professionals. And people used to train to be chemistry professionals and go to college for it. Still do. But there was a guy at the University of Pennsylvania's medical school all the way back in 1797 named James Woodhouse, and he was a professor of chemistry. And he also had a nice little sideline selling chemistry chests to his students and being like, you really won't get an A or even maybe pass this class if you don't buy my chemistry set.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, not bad. It's like when the professor wrote the book that you're exactly one little just sort of fun fact that Dave threw in here was this was pre test tube. They didn't have test tubes yet. So in both of these early 18th century chemistry chests, they said to use wine glasses.

[Josh Clark]

Very nice for. Very swanky.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

So there was also even back then. Well, maybe not back in the 1700s, but certainly very quickly after that. No, I'm going to go ahead and say the 1700s included, everybody was like, this is not just like interesting and you can do stuff with it. This can be kind of fun too. It's fun to take two chemicals and suddenly make this, these two clear things turn blue. Who doesn't love that kind of thing? And so there was always like a certain element of magic to chemistry and in particular chemistry sets. And eventually people started like selling them as that, not just as that. But there was a transition from just for chemical professionals, chemists, for chemists, but also for chemists who'd like to have a good time.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, I mean, there were, and we've talked about this before, like scientific demonstrations in the 19th century could be everything from just like straight up science to a little magic. A little showmanship involved, a little flair. People like Faraday were doing stuff like this in public. There was a chemist named Frederick Ackham, I guess a C C U M who would do these big public demonstrations that were, you know, kind of part magic show, part science. And you could even buy one of his sets. He had a chemistry set. I don't think they were called chess at this point, called Accum's. Oh, it was still called the Chest. Oh, yeah. There it is in the title. Accum's Chest of Chemical Amusement again, which, you know, lends itself to amusement. I think the booklet was called Chemical Amusement, A series of curious and instructive experiments in chemistry which are easily performed and unattended by danger.

[Josh Clark]

That's important right there.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Because one of the things that kind of got all over chemistry sets over the years was safety. And this was even, like, back in the early 19th century that they were like, this can be dangerous. So, yeah, that was a big thing that he included that in the title of the booklet that came with it.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, for sure. And all of this talk of sort of magic and fun is a long way to get to the fact that by the sort of early ish 1800s and like 1835, they started saying, hey, we should sell these to kids. These are fun.

[Josh Clark]

You know, who's trustworthy Kids.

[Chuck Bryant]

Exactly. There's one called the Edes Youth Laboratory from 1835. A few years later was Statham Students Chemical Laboratory. And then by 1856, they had one called Pike's Youth Chemical Cabinet. Wow.

[Josh Clark]

Chemical Cabinet. Sounds amazing.

[Chuck Bryant]

It does.

[Josh Clark]

And then by the time the 20th century rolled around, so they were making these things here or there for centuries by now, finally, they were like, okay, our market is young people who are enthusiastic about chemistry, but also, again, wear capes because they like magic. And one of the good examples that Dave turned up about this came out in 1900. It was Kingsley's Primus Chemical Magic and Practical Chemistry Cabinet. And it had everything you needed to carry out, like these serious chemistry experiments. And it came with a booklet, too, that had plenty of instructions, but it also had a lot of stuff to set things on fire and instructions on how to essentially make fireworks and things like that.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. I would love to see a Venn diagram of Gen X kids who had chemistry sets who could pull a rabbit out of a hat or a card out of somebody's ear and knew how to do the Rubik's Cube and draw a flip book.

[Josh Clark]

That's the trifecta.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. That was my brother in a nutshell.

[Josh Clark]

Sure.

[Chuck Bryant]

It's like, oh, Rubik's Cube. Sure. You want to see how to solve it?

[Josh Clark]

But he wouldn't even say, watch this. He'd be like, here, let me help you.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right? Yeah, exactly.

[Josh Clark]

I also, just as a little side note, I'm like, why did they call that a Primus Chemistry Cabinet? So it Turns out Primus, one of the definitions of it, is a small stove that burns paraffin. So presumably that was included in the kit, is like a Bunsen burner. And I went a little deeper. I was like, okay, why is the band Primus called Primus? And it turns out they were originally called the Primates. There was another band called the Primates that said, we will sue the pants off of you if you call yourself the Primates. So Les Claypool and friends looked up primate definitions and words and found out that Primus is the root word for primate. So they went with Primus instead.

[Chuck Bryant]

Look at that. One of my most hated bands of all time.

[Josh Clark]

Really?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. I hate Primus. And you know what I'm going to hear from Primus fans?

[Josh Clark]

Oh, yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

You are not yucking your yum. I love for you to love what you love, but I've got to be able to hate Primus as well.

[Josh Clark]

Sure. They can't yum your yuck. Yeah, like everybody. It's not like you're telling them not to listen or that they suck for listening.

[Chuck Bryant]

No, I'm sure they're great for certain ears. It's just Primus, not mine.

[Josh Clark]

They have some good songs, though. Chuck. Jerry was a race car driver. You honestly don't like that song?

[Chuck Bryant]

No.

[Josh Clark]

Okay. All right.

[Chuck Bryant]

They all sound the same to me. They all sound like his bass just all sounds like.

[Josh Clark]

That was a really good impression, actually.

[Chuck Bryant]

And all the singing just sound.

[Josh Clark]

That's definitely true, too. Yeah. You don't like Primus?

[Chuck Bryant]

No. It checks out. One of my very best friends loves Primus, and so, you know, we can all coexist.

[Josh Clark]

You're like. So I can say that.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, exactly. A lot of my friends are Primus fans. All right, let's take a break and we'll enter the 20th, 20th, 20th century right after this.

[Josh Clark]

Sure.

We learn so much stuff from Josh and Chuck. Stuff you should know.

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[Josh Clark]

Okay, so I think like I said, in the early 20th century they were like, yep, young boys who are interested in chemistry. And let's go back and emphasize this boys. That's who we're going to market these things to. This is who chemistry sets belong to. Like little boy scientists who have an interest in chemistry. And the thing that went basically throughout the 20th century, at least up until like the 60s, if you bought a chemistry set for your kid, like that was their first step toward being a professional chemist as they grew up.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And you were guaranteed to have a little boy on the front box 100%. That's just the way it was back then. And we'll get to more of that sort of weird sexism in science that still continues today in a little bit. But one of the big players, there were a couple of big ones. The first one was the Chemcraft company. Chemcraft chemistry set in 1916 was the first really sort of popular toy chemistry set produced by the Porter Chemical Company out of Maryland. And it was about a buck fifty to maybe ten bucks if you were pretty well healed, because that's about 40 to 300 bucks today. So some pretty decent money you'd have to throw down on the high end chemistry set. Back then. These had test tubes by this point. You had an alcohol lamp. Of course, you had your weights and balances, and you had lots of chemicals.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, this is like a serious chemistry set. It had all the stuff you needed and it was substantial in form. Right. The manual also was like, we're going to do some serious stuff. One of the first experiments from this manual came from 1919, that edition. It's called combination of elements. And basically you put powdered zinc and sulfur on a metal spoon and start heating it. Be sure to quote, keep your face at a little distance. And then as the mass becomes hot, the sulfur takes fire and burns. And then the mixture starts to swell to a bulky porous mass while on fire. And then suddenly there's a flash and sulfur and zinc unite, chemically forming zinc sulfide. And hopefully you have your eyebrows left afterward.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. It's funny, the literal quote was keeping your face at a little distance. And the first three times I read that, I read it as keeping your little face at a distance.

[Josh Clark]

Oh, I wish they'd said that. That's adorable.

[Chuck Bryant]

It should have been, keep your little face at a great distance because that was dangerous. There was also something called fire ink, which is exactly what you think you would combine. Well, you may not know what you combine, but you know what the result probably is? You combine potassium nitrate and water in a test tube and then write on a piece of paper and light that on fire. And what you have spelled out is now on fire.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. So the potassium nitrate in water is the fire ink, as it were. Which sounds pretty cool, man. Imagine being like, hello, how are you suddenly on fire on a piece of paper? Your friend's going to think you're pretty cool. I literally wrote neat with an exclamation point after that one.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, but you would also probably be more likely to write butthole or something like that than, hey, how are you?

[Josh Clark]

That's true, you know, that's totally true. Also, I want to take back the word literally. I'm really trying hard to abandon that. Even when it's properly used. It's just so, so wrong these days.

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, good for You.

[Josh Clark]

Thank you.

[Chuck Bryant]

Literally. Good for you.

[Josh Clark]

So what else?

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, that was another experiment called this is so fun. It's called making a fuse and that basically all you need to know, it's like, you know, you can. You can probably make things that will blow up. So you're going to need a fuse.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And that went really well with the manufacturer of colored fire, which was homemade fireworks. It was genuinely and sincerely a flash in a pan because you would put these different metals in and make. You make gunpowder. The little kid would make gunpowder, and then depending on the chemical or metal that they added, it would burn a different color in a pan as a flash. Genuinely.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. You found another. Some cool research on, like, just how dangerous some of these chemicals were, right?

[Josh Clark]

Oh, yeah. Let's talk about those.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. What else was in there?

[Josh Clark]

In some of these sets that came out in the 20th century, there was iodine solution, which sounds kind of innocuous, but they figured out over time that you could use that to make meth with.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay.

[Josh Clark]

You could also, if you ate 2 grams of it or more, you would probably die. I think ammonium nitrate was in that, which is frequently used to make bombs.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

What else?

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, one thing you could do that was fun is you could make smoke bombs.

[Josh Clark]

Right.

[Chuck Bryant]

With that potassium nitrate, which is. I don't know if you mentioned, it's also in gunpowder.

[Josh Clark]

True.

[Chuck Bryant]

So a lot of these experiments were like, watch it flame, spark, or boom in a small way.

[Josh Clark]

Another one used to show up was sodium cyanide, which is more commonly referred to as cyanide. And you would bind to metals, like essentially dissolve gold into water or metals into water. It's pretty neat. That's what it's used for. But it's also a rapidly acting toxin that can kill you dead pretty easily. And this was one of those chemicals in the glass vials that arrived in the chemistry sets for kids back then.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And speaking of glass, there are even some chemistry sets that had the material and instruction for blowing glass, which is no doubt a super cool, awesome thing to learn, but it's, you know, it's not something a kid should be trying in their bedroom.

[Josh Clark]

No, I mean, it has to get really hot to melt glass enough to blow it. One of my favorites is calcium hypochlorite, which is one of the main ingredients for chlorine gas, which was, I think, the first chemical weapon to ever be banned by the world. So you could make a chemical weapon in your bedroom if you knew what you were doing.

[Chuck Bryant]

And as we're saying all this we should point out that these early kits and sets did not offer things like eye protection. Like not even a little pair of like fun goggles. You know, like, hey kid, these are cute and fun. You'll look like a real scientist if you wear these. Like, just didn't come with them. And the whole thing with, you know, that we tied it into earlier with magic, a lot of them had, like, here's your science experiments you can do, but also here's some just really fun sort of literal magic tricks you can do, right?

[Josh Clark]

There was one that's called the magic handkerchief. And you take a handkerchief and you put I think blue cobalt on it and as you dry it out, I think it turns white or no, blue. And you can change it to white magically by it instructs you to ball it up and rub it in your hands for a few minutes. Any magic trick that takes a few minutes of repetitive motion is not a magic trick worth doing. But what was great is it said, now here's where you have some fun. And then it went on to the next instruction. So these were really mid century written instruction booklets that really captured the time if you think about it.

[Chuck Bryant]

Shall we take a break?

[Josh Clark]

Oh my. You bet.

[Chuck Bryant]

All right. That was very insured, but we're doing it anyway. We'll be right back.

[Josh Clark]

We learn so much stuff from Josh and Chuck. Stuff you should know.

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[Bartesian Representative]

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[Chuck Bryant]

Attention parents and grandparents. Are you searching for the perfect gift for your kids this holiday season? Well, give the gift of adventure that will last all year long. A Guardian bike. The easiest, safest and quickest bikes for kids to learn on. Kids are learning to ride a bike in just one day. No training wheels needed.

[Josh Clark]

Very nice. But what sets Guardian Bikes apart? Well, they're designed especially for stability. They're low to the ground with a wide wheelbase and ultra lightweight frames. And they offer superior control and balance. And this particular design gives young riders the ability to learn. And again, just one day without any tears or frustration.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's right. They're assembled here in the United States of America. And I gotta say, Guardian Bikes was kind enough to send my daughter a Guardian bike. And she loves this thing. It's her first big girl bike. I put it together with great ease and this thing is a great bike.

[Josh Clark]

So join the hundreds of thousands of happy families, including Chuck's by getting a Guardian bike. Today. Their holiday sales have begun offering the biggest deal of the year. You can save up to 33% on bikes, no discount code needed. Plus get free shipping and a free bike lock and pump with your first purchase. After signing up for their newsletter, just visit guardianbikes.com and Happy Riding.

[Chuck Bryant]

All right, so you're getting these chemistry sets, another big part of the whole sort of branding thing for these companies, making these. And this was just sort of big back in those days in the 1950s was like clubs, like kids clubs. So if you got a chemistry set, it was pretty good chance it would come with like a membership in like a science club. And there could be local chapters that you get together with your friends and things you could mail in for. Probably a magazine is involved, like a quarterly magazine. Certainly in the case of Chemcraft, they had the science club and the Chemcraft chemist was their rag that they sent out, which was usually just ads for more stuff to buy. But they were kind of fun little stories like where a kid would save the day through some cool chemistry experiment.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, they seem very Mark Trail esque.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, for sure.

[Josh Clark]

So in addition to Chemcraft, Gilbert was essentially Chemcraft's Rival. And Gilbert was the company of Alfred Carlton Gilbert, who had invented the Original Erector Set 1913, that originally was debuted as like an engineer's chemistry set. That's what Erectors were sold as. But so Gilbert was like, well, let's get into chemistry too. So they came up with the Gilbert chemistry outfit for boys. So the name of the product literally specifies that it's just for boys.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And it had a little asterisk and at the very bottom it said must have penis.

[Josh Clark]

On the label too. Like the picture on the box had a little boy with his shirt sleeves rolled up wearing a tie, doing his chemistry stuff. Like an eight year old wearing a tie.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. This is 1920.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

So Dave found an instruction manual, not from the 1920 edition, but from 1936. And this one finally did have a warning here. And we should read this because this is pretty fun. Gilbert chemistry sets are not intended for children who cannot read and understand the accompanying instruction books. The sets do not contain dangerous poisons. And the chemical mentioned in this manual are not embraced under the term poisons. They're perfectly safe to use if handled carefully and intelligently. They are not intended to be taken by mouth or swallowed. And no intelligent person would be expected to use them for such purposes. So they're shaming at the same time. It is necessary, however, to emphasize the fact that carelessness on the part of the experimenter can always lead to trouble.

[Josh Clark]

Yes. And if you ever signed up for Disney, you can't sue us if you blow up and burn your house down.

[Chuck Bryant]

Exactly. And then they have a few tips at the end. Like never point the open end of a test tube that you're heating at anybody. Never just put your nose at the end of one while heating to smell it or put your little face near it.

[Josh Clark]

Yep, exactly. So at least Gilbert's. This is the 30s, mid-30s, where Gilbert's like, okay, we need to let kids know, like, you need to be responsible with this. And that was actually, I read one of the expectations of chemistry sets in the middle of the 20th century, that it went to a home populated by a boy who had parents that taught that kid responsible stuff. How to be responsible, how to handle chemicals correctly, how to be safe, how to be smart. That that was kind of part and parcel with buying a chemistry set. You, the parent, didn't just hand it to your kid and say, like, leave me alone for a while. Like you were supposed to be involved, at least initially.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. At least looking over his shoulder with your pipe in your mouth.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Knocking on the door and being, like, still alive in there.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right, Mom, I told you to always knock. So we talked a little bit about the sort of sexism involved with all this stuff is only marketed to boys. Pictures of boys, literally on the package for boys. In some cases, that was just the deal. It was like, boys were scientists, Girls were not considered for science. That is still a problem. There are so many initiatives these days to get young girls into science at a young age, very successfully in a lot of cases. But it's still a challenge to be a woman in the world of science. I think we've heard from plenty of listeners who have verified that, but in the 1920s, they did. The Porter Chemical Company did say, hey, we're selling these things to boys. What about the girls? And they were like, oh, how about sashay craft the girls sachet outfit? Which was chemistry in that it was a way to mix perfumes.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. Making flowery smells from aromatic powders.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. It was basically a perfume set.

[Josh Clark]

Right, Exactly. And they're still in use today in hoodoo love potions. And I was looking at some of these, and the names of the ones that I could find were Confusion. Destroy Everything is one of the potions. Follow Me Gal was another one.

[Chuck Bryant]

No, I'll have that.

[Josh Clark]

So you want to steer clear of people using hoodoo love potions on you, because there's no telling what they'll make you do is essentially the thinking behind it. But they're. They're made from sachet powders as well. That's why I say that. I don't know if that was clear.

[Chuck Bryant]

Eventually, in the 1960s, Gilbert finally was like, all right, let's make a four girls chemistry set. But even then, in the books and stuff, it was like, so you too can become a lab technician.

[Josh Clark]

A lab technician, yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Like, not, you know, they weren't encouraging you to, like, reach for the stars and become a scientist.

[Josh Clark]

No, it was like, so you could learn what you're doing and go assist boy chemists. The real comedy.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right, Exactly.

[Josh Clark]

It's so nuts.

[Chuck Bryant]

Boo.

[Josh Clark]

So this was in the 60s, you said that at least chemistry sets for girls came out, even if they were still derogatory. That was the golden era of chemistry sets. The 50s to the 60s. Usually about the early to mid-60s.

[Chuck Bryant]

They say, we love a golden age.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. And this was definitely it. And I've seen in multiple places that the reason why this was the golden age of chemistry sets was because this was a time when America in particular was feeling pretty good about science. Not only had America been the first to come up with the bomb. We were also making things like nylon, we were making more durable goods out of plastics. Like science was improving people's lives. And at the heart of this was chemistry. So there was a real desire to keep the party going by creating the next generation of chemists, by really going all in onto chemistry sets. And so they started selling even better than they ever had before.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, the two slogans changed in the 50s and 60s for Kim Kraft, they changed it to Porter Science Prepares Young America for World Leadership. And Gilbert responded in kind with today's adventures in science. We'll create tomorrow's America. And it was this idea, like, I think even A.C. gilbert, the founder, like, included a note that said, hello boys. That said, hello boys. The need for chemists is greater now than at any point in our country's history. This Gilbert chemistry set may well be the means of launching you on a useful and well paying career. So it was like, hey, this is a toy. But if you're interested in science, just wait because there's a career out there waiting for you.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, if you like making things catch on fire, wait until they pay you money to make things catch on fire. You're going to really like it. And so things just kind of started to get like anything they could throw at the wall. Because they were selling so many of these, they were willing to try a lot more than just the standard chemistry set. And one of the ones that came out, Chuck In I think 1950 is widely considered, at least by some, the world's most dangerous toy.

[Chuck Bryant]

Was it Bag of Glass.

[Josh Clark]

It was even worse than that. Although I don't know. At the end of the day, I think Bag of Glass might be worse.

[Chuck Bryant]

That of course, was from the great Saturday Night live from the 70s, think Dan Aykroyd. But we did, or maybe you did back in the day when we were tasked with doing, what do we call them, image galleries. And you did something on Dangerous Toys. And I think I remember like this was in there, because I remember we talked about it either there or in a, maybe a podcast or one of the videos we used to do about the Atomic Energy Lab. It had real uranium in it.

[Josh Clark]

It did not only did it have four vials of actual uranium or super radioactive uranium ore. Well, I should say actual radioactive uranium ore. There are also three different sources of alpha, beta and gamma particle radiation too. So this box was like quite radioactive. It was a legit real deal science box. It had a Geiger counter in it. Thank God it had something Called a spinteroscope, which you could look through. It's almost like a seeing eyeglass. Now, what are they called? Like that, Like a loop a captain would like, pull out the.

[Chuck Bryant]

Not a telescope, Like a sextant.

[Josh Clark]

No, it's like that telescope that's small and pocket sized, that telescopes into a smaller version of itself.

[Chuck Bryant]

I think it's called telescope, isn't it?

[Josh Clark]

All right, whatever. So it's like that, but you can actually watch radioactive isotopes decaying under this thing. There was also a cloud chamber in there, which is really impressive that they had cloud chambers.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. Is this the thing you sent?

[Josh Clark]

Yes.

[Chuck Bryant]

I did not get a chance to look over this, so feel free.

[Josh Clark]

Okay. So a cloud chamber is a specific kind of, like, flask or vial that's set up to hold alcohol vapor that in some way, shape or form, I guess through magic, you can see the trails of radioactive particles moving through the alcohol vapor. Very similar to, like a contrail from an airplane. If you believe that those are actually contrails.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

And the particles, the lower, lesser active radioactive particles would kind of zigzag and make little cute lines, but that's because they were actually being slowed down by the alcohol vapor. The really strong ones would make a nice, bold, straight line through there. And you could just see all these little trails of radioactive particles show up in your own personal cloud chamber that came in this playset.

[Chuck Bryant]

Wow.

[Josh Clark]

I know, it was really impressive.

[Chuck Bryant]

Well, the ones that came with uranium, they had booklets. One was called Prospecting for Uranium that taught you how to mine a radioactive ore. So you're thinking, like, all right, literally, how dangerous was this? There have been modern calculations about, you know, what was contained in these boxes. And supposedly the amount of radiation from the uranium in one of these sets equaled about a day of UV exposure from the sun. So it's not the most dangerous thing in the world. But it is pretty funny that it came with, like, actual uranium.

[Josh Clark]

Right. I couldn't find an answer, though. Like, over what period of time was it days worth of UV exposure? Like an hour if you spent the day with this thing. Like, I couldn't quite nail it down, but from the context that everybody describes it in, it sounds fairly harmless.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And it's exposure, but, like, what if it's on your skin or gets in your body?

[Josh Clark]

Somehow your teeth?

[Chuck Bryant]

That can't be good.

[Josh Clark]

So I saw that they only sold about 5,000 of them and that it wasn't. There's a great Atlas Obscura video on this where they talked to A curator at a science museum who opens one of these and just talks about it. And she said that they were discontinued after two years, not because of safety concerns, but because they didn't sell very many, because it was about 500 or something dollars in today's money for these things. So most parents weren't like, sure, I'll buy you this atomic lab for 500 bucks.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. And here's the thing, it was just kind of fun. We won't read through all these quotes, but a lot of legit Nobel winning chemists over the years got their start in chemistry sets. I imagine a lot of real deal scientists and chemists had these things when they were kids. And we'll read one from Oliver Sacks, the neurologist and author, said, I do not think there can be any adequate substitute for having a chemistry set or a little chemistry lab and doing experiments oneself, thinking them out, taking responsibility for them, and occasionally facing risks too. So Oliver Sacks, talking about risk, was one of the big sort of cells of chemistry sets for kids. Like a little bit of danger involved. You know, they were fun and all, but I think it was that little bit of like, you know, you are making fire, you are making things go boom or smoke. That was one of the things that appealed to kids and probably still does.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, for sure. And the problem is, is that over time, so like kids who are like, I'm really into this and I need to learn to be a responsible chemist because I want to grow up to be a chemist over, like there were also kids that got these that were not that interested in being a chemist. They just wanted to blow things up. And then I think also there were kids who were responsible but just had accidents. And so the, there were reports of people burning down their family house with these chemistry sets or injuring themselves. And that kind of coincided with a couple of things. One, this increasing interest in protecting kids from toys. And then two, also a greater emphasis on things like environmental pollutants and toxins. And that whole like love of chemistry that really carried Everybody in the 50s and early 60s was starting to be questioned. And like, exactly what are these chemicals doing to us? So you put those two things combined and chemistry sets started to take a hit.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, for sure. In 66, Congress passed the Child Protection act, which all of a sudden you could ban a toy that had something dangerous or hazardous in there. A couple Years later, the U.S. department of Health, Education and Welfare, they estimated that toys, just all toys, caused about 700,000 injuries a year. So more regulations were passed in the late 60s and early 70s for, like you said, just protecting kids from dangers in toys. And what these toys were made of in the case of chemistry sets, like the chemicals that were in there.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. So, like, this increasing concern among parents and what are in these chemistry sets led to a decline in sales. And in fact, Porter Chemical and Gilbert, the two rivals who made Chemcraft and Gilbert chemistry sets, were bought by a toy maker named Gabriel Toys, who. You might recognize that name from Othello Trouble, the pottery craft activity little set where you could make your own pottery. You remember that? It was this little pottery wheel, probably remember the box? You definitely would. But you could recreate that scene from Ghost, but for cheap.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, yeah. As a teenager too.

[Josh Clark]

Anyway, Gabriel, they bought Those too in 1967, and by the 80s there were like no chemistry sets. You just couldn't sell them. Some companies went on like, no, we're going to keep the flame going. But they really, really watered them down. Starting in the 80s and 90s.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah, for sure. And that, I mean, I guess my brother would have had one probably from the 70s. So it may have still been a little bit legit. But yeah, in the 80s they started literally watering them down, watering down the chemicals. Things became plastic. Like, you didn't get glass test tubes and metal scales and stuff like that anymore. Like, you know, the old kits were just sort of smaller, condensed versions of like the real deal. And that all changed. They just became cheaper, kind of like everything else, I think. In 2001 there was a recall of a set called Professor Wacko's Exothermic Exuberance that had glycerin and potassium. What is that word?

[Josh Clark]

Permanganate. Yeah.

[Chuck Bryant]

Okay, great. And that could cause things to catch on fire and spontaneously combust. This particular kit had containers with removable lids, but they weren't labeled. So kids were mis. Labeling things or just getting them confused, basically because there were no labels. And there were two separate house fire incidents. So that one was recalled. And that was. I mean, that was in the early 2000s. It was surprising those were still around.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, I think those people tried to throw back to like the real deal and it just didn't quite work. There was another one that's a CSI fingerprint examination kit, which sounds extremely innocuous, but it was recalled in 2007 because they found out that the fingerprint powder that you used to dust for prints with had asbestos in it. It was up to 5% asbestos, which is obviously, I think, a mesothelioma causing carcinogen. So that was like, no. And parents were like, what are you guys doing? Stop selling our kids. Like we're clearly into product safety. Stop selling our kids this stuff. So a toy maker named, oh, I don't know who made it, but they came out with a set called Chemistry 60. And they were like, watch this. This is 60 fun activities with no chemicals.

[Chuck Bryant]

In other words, boring. This is the irony here. Despite that it had no chemicals, it had two kinds of safety goggles. The goggles and those little clear safety glasses made out of whatever they're made out of. The non chat or something.

[Josh Clark]

And a folded up nanny who came out of the box to hover while all these experiments are going on. And you could get the items that you need. Like you did need some chemicals, but these are like kitchen level chemicals, like vinegar, baking soda, that kind of stuff. And I thought that was kind of reminiscent. You remember Dave came up with a bunch of quotes of Nobel scientists who credit chemistry sets for increasing their or starting their interest in science. There was one other scientist named Carrie Mullis who won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 93, who said that their objective with their chemistry set was to figure out what things I might put together to cause an explosion and that they discovered whatever chemicals might be missing, they could buy them at the local drugstore or hardware store. And so like that's, this is like the antithesis of that. Rather than being like I need more explosive stuff or I need this other thing to make this explosion happen. I'm going to go down to the drugstore hardware store. This was. I'm going to go to the kitchen and make a baking soda and vinegar volcano in this chemistry set that my parents bought me. And then I'm going to go to sleep and maybe hopefully never wake up.

[Chuck Bryant]

Dave did a little research though and found that there are some pretty good ones today that you can still get. There are some companies that are trying to make a safe version of a real deal chemistry set these days. This one called, I don't know, it's Tim's or Thames in this case and Cosmos with a K. It's called the Chem C 3000. Wow. 280 bucks plus money for chemicals. So it better be good for that kind of dough.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, it got best overall chemistry set by the Wall street journal in 2006. I didn't know the Wall Street Journal rated such things, but it makes sense 18 years ago. It does make sense that they would rate it though, because some of the legit chemistry sets sold today, they're for homeschoolers who need this kind of stuff. And in fact, if you want to plunk down 645 simoleons, you can get a chemistry set that covers an entire year of 11th grade chemistry.

[Chuck Bryant]

Oh, wow.

[Josh Clark]

Pretty neat. I also saw one other reason that chemistry sets kind of got watered down over the years are meth labs. People were finding, like, they could actually buy these things and use them to make meth.

[Chuck Bryant]

Right.

[Josh Clark]

So there was another. There was another prong to, like, be like, we need to really stop making these legit chemistry sets.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah.

[Josh Clark]

Got anything else?

[Chuck Bryant]

I got nothing else. You know, support. Support science for your. For your kids. Little. Little girls, little boys. Get them a chemistry set.

[Josh Clark]

Very nice.

[Chuck Bryant]

That's what I say.

[Josh Clark]

That's right. Since Chuck gave us a nice psa, it's time, of course, for listener mail.

[Chuck Bryant]

I'm gonna call this all caught up. Hey, everybody got hooked on your show in 2019. After a few weeks of listening, I decided I had to listen to all of it. And after five years, I finally have completed that task. Just finished listening to the Judas Priest suicide trial.

[Josh Clark]

Wow.

[Chuck Bryant]

During a morning trail run. And now I feel like I have a little void in my life, you guys, having to wait patiently throughout the week for new content. I often listen for hours on end during trail runs training for Ultramarathons. By the way, Josh has many times called them ultrathons, which never fails to give me a chuckle. Ultrathon. Is that not a thing?

[Josh Clark]

I think they're called ultramarathons. Ultrathon is like a bad guy on a character. Yeah. On some Japanese anime.

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. I like Ultrathon. Your voices and content guys always give me. Keep me in a positive mood, even when I'm at the point of exhaustion. You've been with me and my wife through some big life events. Our marriage, multiple cross country moves, new jobs, and now a new baby in a few weeks. And by the time this comes out, that baby will be around, I would imagine, because we're ahead by a few weeks at this point. So keep up the great work, guys. I can continue to share this and enjoy it with my family as it grows by one. Maybe a long shot, but I'd love to see a live show up here in Halifax, Nova Scotia. But you get a couple hundred people in a room here. That's from Matt. Well, Matt, we got a couple of hundred people in a room in Atlanta.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah, we can't get worse than that, right?

[Chuck Bryant]

Yeah. I'd rather go to Halifax than have a hometown show be undersold.

[Josh Clark]

Yeah. You got any barns in Halifax, Matt, that we can do a show in?

[Chuck Bryant]

I bet Matt has a barn.

[Josh Clark]

Well, congratulations in advance retroactively to you and your family for your baby's birth. And if you want to get in touch with us like Matt did and tell us how much we've kept you going on your ultra thons, you can do so by sending us an email to stuffpodcastiheartradio.com Stuff youf Should Know is.

A production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts My Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

[H]

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[I]

Gifting is hard, but here's a hint. Give the gift of connection from US Cellular. Not sure what that means. Here's a slightly more specific hint. You can choose four free phones and get four lines for $90 a month from US Cellular. Your family wants new phones. How do we know? They told us. The good news is that compared to wrapping presents, you're great at getting hints. So take the hint and get them four free phones and four lines for $90 a month US Cellular built for us.

[Josh Clark]

Your teen requested a ride, but this time not from you. It's through their Uber Teen account. You probably drive your teenager around a lot. They have gymnastics club, science club, rec, soccer club, school soccer club club soccer club and three hour clarinet club on Saturday night. Perfect. Now with an Uberteen account, you can be there even when you can't. It's an Uber account that allows your team to request a ride under your supervision. They ride with a highly rated driver and with live trip tracking, you can follow along the whole ride. Add your teen to your Uber account today. See app for details.