Thursday 20 February 2014

It Must Have been So Much Fun At Christmas,

for a kid to open up one of these! 


the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab, it was only available for a couple of years, from 1951 to 1952, the set 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 (Dagwood Splits the Atom) and a government manual 'Prospecting for Uranium, I guess that manual could still be useful today, the set was the brain child of Olympic Gold Medal winner Alfred Carlton Gilbert,

but here is the bit I like, can you imagine what a fuss would be made today by the postal service delivering a few replacement bits for a kids toy! as an aside the kit when available sold for the relatively high price for the time of $49.95 that and its sophistication were the explanation Gilbert gave for the set's short lifespan, I happened to look on EBay and noticed one sans the Geiger counter that has a starting price of $2,400.



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