Having your very own nuclear lab at home sounds pretty awesome, right? Well kids in 1950s had this opportunity when the famous American toy-maker, Alfred Carlton Gilbert decided to introduce a toy kit containing not only actual radioisotopes but also equipment to detect radiation.The kit was sold for 49.50$ in 1950 and it contained a battery powered GM counter, electroscope,spinthariscope, a wilson cloud chamber with a Polonium source,four glass jars containing natural uranium bearing ores (autunite,torbenite,uraninite and carnotite), low level radiation sources (Pb-210, Ru-106, Zn-65), nuclear spheres to make a model of an alpha particle and three C batteries.
Gilbert Atomic energy manual, Prospecting for Uranium and Learn how Dagwood split the atom booklets were also included. The last booklet is an educational comic which was prepared under the supervision of Leslie R. Groves (Director of the Manhattan Project) and Dr. John R.Dunning.
The cloud chamber mesmerized the young scientists and the kit encouraged to play "Hide and Seek" with the gamma source suggesting children to hide the source and try to find it using the GM counter which was giving children an unnecessary exposure to radiation. However unlike A.C. Gilbert company's other science kits, this kit was not popular in market and only less than 5000 kits were sold. The kit was too complex for children and Gilbert later admitted that some of the features may have been advanced for the younger crowd.
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