Kids' Chemistry Sets: KABOOM! | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. welcome to stuff you should know a. production of iHeart. [Music]. Radio hey and welcome to the podcast I'm. Josh and there's Chuck Jerry's here too. floating around somewhere out there and. uh that makes this stuff you should know. that's right uh you thought of this one. and Dave helped us out with the research. on chemistry sets uh 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 was it Scott oh of course he did he. was voted most likely to have a. chemistry set in. preschool that's awesome did he do. anything magical with it no I mean I I. just remember him having it and it being. around the house and you know he's he's. just always had a more scientifically. minded brain than me and has always been. smarter than me from the drop so he uh. he he was into chemistry sets and I was.

into you know baseball cards 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. like an electrical set like the. electrical version of a chemistry set do. all sorts of stuff yeah yeah and I. distinctly remember just hitting it with. a hammer because I had no idea what was. going on with that thing you can't build. a. circuit 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 at that is. uh friend of the show and and pal of. ours in real life David Rees oh yeah uh. he got into circuitry and like building. and refurbishing old like uh musical. electronics and pedals and stuff like. that what an interesting dude if you. don't know who Dave Reese is yeah go. look up what's the name of his book. about artisanal pencil sharpening I. think it's how to 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 Reese man.

is so good um B 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 he also was on. dicktown with Hodgman right that's right. and he can build the heck out of a. circuit I bet you had a chemistry set. too very nice um I know that uh Dave. Rose 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 uh but 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 uh but this was. pre uh 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 uh do you. like to wear. capes yeah exactly you like a smok get a. chemistry set right uh so the first one. actually they traced it back to to a guy.

named you're going to make me say his. name huh watch this yeah Johan Friedrich. August goodling hey not bad well you. mean not bad that was dead on the nose I. think it was perfect I think I can hear. our German listeners giving me a. standing ovation right now ah vbar he uh. came up with a chemistry chest uh 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. minology metallurgists scientific. artists manufacturers farmers and. cultivators of natural philosophy and. party. boys uh and again this thing wasn't a. toy a toy it had 35 chemicals had a a. very robust like balance you know like a. balance for weighing things uh had a. mortar and pestle of course it had a. book and this is kind of you as you'll. see a key with all chemistry sets is a.

come with a book of experiments uh. otherwise you're just going to be. dangerous um you might be anyway but uh. this one had about 150. experiments uh and interestingly had. this Platinum foil included they would. not include now because this stuff was. very valuable um I believe in today. dollars it'd be worth about a thousand. bucks wow if the price is right that's. right if and the reason they include. Platinum foils Platinum is a really. valuable and useful Catalyst in a lot of.

chemical reactions it wasn't just to. like show off no of course not um 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 yeah not bad it's like. when the professor wrote the book that. you're your textbook uh one little just. sort of fun fact that Dave threw in here. was this was uh pre- test tube they. didn't have test tubes yet so in both of. these early 18th century chemistry. chests uh they said to use wine. glasses very nice.

yeah um 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 there that everybody was like. this is not just like interesting and. and you can do stuff with it this can be. kind of fun too like 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 um and in eventually. people started like selling them as that. not just as that but there was a. transition from just for chemical. professionals chemists to for chemists. but also for chemists who' like to have. a good time yeah uh I mean there were. and we've talked about this before like. scientific demonstrations in the you. know 19th century could be everything.

from just like straightup science to a. little little magic a little Showmanship. involved a little flare uh people like. Faraday were doing stuff like this in. public uh there was a chemist named. Frederick uh akam I guess accum MH uh. who would do these big public. demonstrations that were you know kind. of part magic show part science and he. you could even buy one of his sets he. had a chemistry uh set I don't think. they were called chess at this point um. called acum oh it was still called the.

chest oh yeah there it is in the. title aum's uh chest of chemical. Amusement uh again um which you know. lends itself to Amusement I think there. was the booklet was called chemical. Amusement colon a series of Curious and. instructive experiments in chemistry. which are easily performed and. unattended by danger that's important. right there yeah because one of the. things that kind of got all over. chemistry sets over the years was safety.

and uh this was even like back in the. early 19th century that they were like. this can be dangerous so um yeah that. that was a big a big thing that he. included that in the title of the. booklet that came with it yeah for sure. uh and all of this you know talk of sort. of magic and fun is a is a long way to. get to the fact that by the sort of. earlyish 1800s and like. 1835 they started saying hey these like. we should sell these to kids these are. fun um you know who's trustworthy kids.

exactly there's one called Ed's uh youth. laboratory from. 1835 a few years later was STM students. chemical laboratory and then by 1856. they had one called Pikes youth chemical. cabinet wow chemical cabinet sounds. amazing it does um and then by the time. the 20th century rolled around so they. were making these things here or there. for Centuries by now um finally they. were like okay our Market is young.

people who are enthusiastic about. chemistry but also again wear capes. because they like magic um and one of. the the good examples that Dave turned. up about this was it 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 um 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 yeah I. would love to see a VIN diagram of genx. kids who had chemistry sets yeah who who. could pull a rabbit out of a hat or a. card out of somebody's ear yeah and like. knew how to do the Rubik's Cube and draw. a flip book that's the trifecta yeah. that was my brother in a nutshell sure.

it's like oh Rubik's Cube sure you want. to see how to solve it but he wouldn't. even say watch this he'd be like here. let me help you right yeah. exactly um I also just as a little side. note I'm like why do 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. as like a bunson burner mhm and it 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 um primate. definitions and words and found out that. Primus is the root word for primate so. they went with Primus instead look at. that one of one of my most hated bands. of all time really yeah I hate Primus. and you know what I'm going to hear from. Primus fans oh yeah you are not yucking.

your yum I I I love for you to love what. you love but I've got to be able to hate. Primus as well sure they can't yum your. yuck like everybody it's not like you're. telling them not to listen or that they. suck for listening no I'm sure they're. great for certain ears it's just not. mine they have some good songs though. Chuck Jerry Was a Race Car Driver you. honestly don't like that song no okay. all right they all sound the same to me. they all sound like like his bass just.

all sounds. like that was a really good impression. actually and all the singing just sound. like that's definitely true too yeah you. don't like Primus I don't like it checks. out one of my very best friends loves. Primus and so you know we can we can all. coexist you're like so I can say that. yeah exactly a lot of my friends are. Primus. fans uh all right let's take a break and. we'll enter the 20 20th 20th century.

right after this. [Music]. sure stuff you should. [Music]. know 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 uh that's who we're. going to to Market these things to uh. this is who chemistry sets belong to. like little boy scientists who have an. interest in chemistry and the 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 yeah and 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 we'll get to. more of that uh sort of weird sexism and. science that still continues today in a. little bit but uh one of the big players. there were a couple of big ones the. first one was the Kim Craft Company uh. Chim craft chemistry set in 1916 was the. first really sort of popular toy. chemistry set uh produced by the porter. Chemical Company out of. land and it was about a buck 50 to maybe.

10 bucks if you were pretty well healed. cuz that's uh that's about 40 40 to 300. bucks today so um some some pretty. decent money you'd have to throw down on. a on the high-end chemistry set back. then uh these had test tubes by this. point you had alcohol lamp you of course. you had your weights and balances and. you had lots of chemicals yeah this is. like a serious chemistry set um it had. like all the stuff you needed and it was. substantial in form right mhm um the.

manual also was like we're going to do. some serious stuff um one of the first. uh experiments from this manual came. from. 1919 uh that Edition it's called. combination of elements and uh 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 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 yeah it's funny. like 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. oh I wish they'd said that that's. adorable it was it should have been keep. your little face at a great distance uh. cuz that was dangerous um there there. was also something called fire ink uh.

which is exactly what you think is um. you would combine uh or 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 uh and. then write on a piece of paper and light. that on fire and it you know what you. have spelled out is now on fire yeah so. the potassium nitrate and water is the. ink 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 is going to think. you're pretty cool I literally wrote.

neat with an exclamation point after. that one yeah but you would also. probably be more likely to write. butthole or something like that then hey. how are you that's true you know that's. totally true also I want to take back uh. the word literally I I'm really trying. hard to to abandon that even when it's. properly used it's just so so wrong. these days good for. you thank you literally good for you so. uh what else uh well was another. experiment 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'll blow up so. you're going to need a. fuse uh yeah and that went really well. with the manufacturer of colored fire. which was homemade fireworks mhm it was. genuinely and sincerely a flash in a. pan um because you would put these. different um Metals in and make for 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 yeah you you found. another uh some cool research on like. just how dangerous some of these. chemicals were right oh yeah let's talk. about those yeah what what else was in. there uh in some of these sets that came. out in the 20th century um there was. iodine solution which sounds kind of. innocuous but they figured out over time. that you could use that to make meth. with okay. you could also if you ate two grams of.

it or more you would probably die um I. think ammonium nitrate was in that which. is uh frequently used to make bombs yeah. what else well one thing you could do. that was fun is you could make smoke. bombs right uh with that potassium. nitrate which is uh I don't know if you. mentioned it's also in gunpowder true so. a lot of these experiments were like. watch it flame spark or boom in a in a. small way another one used to show up. with sodium cyanide which uh is more.

commonly referred to as Cyanide and um. you would bind to metals like like make. essentially dissolve gold into water. 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 yeah and speaking of glass. there are even some chemistry sets uh. that had the material and instruction.

for blowing glass which is uh 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 no I. mean it has to get really hot to melt. glass enough to blow it uh one of my. favorites is calcium hypochlorite which. um 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 um bedroom if you knew what you.

were. doing and as we're saying all this we. should point out that these early kits. um 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 look. like a real scientist if you wear these. like just didn't come with them no uh. and the whole thing with you know that. we tied it into earlier with magic um a. lot of them had like here's are like you. know your science experiments you can do.

but also here some just really fun like. sort of literal magic tricks you can do. right um there was one that's called uh. 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 um. 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 magic trick. worth doing but what what was great is.

um it said now here's where you have. some fun and then it went on to the next. instruction so these these were uh. really midcentury written instruction. booklets um that really captured the. time if you think about it shall we take. a break oh my uh you. bet all right that was very inur but. we're doing it anyway we'll be right. back we learn so much stuff from Jos and.

Chu stuff you should. [Music]. know all right so you're getting these. chemistry sets another big part of the. whole sort of branding thing for these. uh companies making these and this was. just of big back in those days and like.

the 1950s was like clubs like kids clubs. so if you got a chemistry set it was a. 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 Kim. craft they have the science club and the. Kim craft chemist was their was their. rag that they sent out uh which was. usually just ads for more stuff to buy. uh but there they were like kind of fun.

little uh stories like where a a kid. would like save the day through some. cool chemistry experiment yeah they seem. very Mark. trailes yeah for sure um so in addition. to chemcraft Gilbert was essentially. chem Craft's rival and Gilbert uh was um. the company of Alfred Carlton Gilbert. who had invented the original Erector. Set 1913 that originally was um as like.

uh an Engineers chemistry set that's. what Erectors were sold as um but so. Gilbert was like well let's getting 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 yeah and it had. a little asteris and at the very bottom. it said must have. penis the uh the on the label too like. on the picture on the box had a little. boy with his shirt sleeves rolled up. wearing a tie doing his chemistry stuff.

like a 8-year-old wearing a tie yeah. this is 1920 yeah yeah uh so the uh Dave. found the an instruction man manual not. from the 1920 Edition but from. 1936 uh and this one finally did have a. warning here and we we should read this. because this is pretty fun uh 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 chemicals men in this manual are.

not un 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 uh it it is necessary however to. emphasize the fact that carelessness on. the part of the experimenter can always. lead to trouble yes and if you ever. signed up for Disney plus you can't sue. us if you blow up and burn your your. house down uh exactly and then they have.

a few tips at the end like you know. 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. face your little face near it 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 in the middle. of the 20th century that it went to a.

home uh 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 yeah at least looking over a. shoulder with your pipe in your mouth. yeah knocking on the door and being like.

still alive in there right mom told you. to always. knock uh 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 uh that. was just the deal was like boys were. scientists uh girls were not considered. for science that is still a problem. there are so many initiatives these days. uh to get get young girls um into.

science at a young age uh very. successfully you know in uh a lot of. cases but it's still a challenge to be a. woman in the world of science uh I think. we've heard from Plenty of listeners who. have verified that yeah um but in the. 1920s they did the porter CH uh Chemical. Company did say hey we're selling these. things to boys what about the girls they. were like oh uh how about sachet craft. the girls sachche outfit which was. chemistry in that it was a way to mix. perfumes yeah making flowery smells from.

aromatic pow powders yeah it was. basically a perfume set right exactly um. and they're still in use today um in. hudo 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 the potions follow meal was another. one no I'll have that so you want to. steer clear of people using who 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 sachche. powders as well that's why I say that I. don't know if that was. clear uh eventually in the 1960s Gilbert. finally was like all right let's make a. a four girls chemistry set uh but even. then uh in the books and stuff it was. like so you too can become a lab. technician A lab technician yeah like. not you know they they weren't. encouraging you you to like reach for. the stars and become a scientist no it.

it was like so you could learn what. you're doing and go assist boy chemists. the real kind right exactly it's so nuts. boo um so this was uh in the 60s you. said that at least chemistry sets for. girls came out even if they were still. derogatory um that was the Golden Era of. chemistry sets the 50s to the 60s. usually about the early to mid 60s they. say we love a golden age yeah and this. was definitely it and I've seen um in.

multiple places that the reason why this. was the Golden Age um of chemistry sets. was because this was a time when America. in particular was feeling pretty good. about science um not only had America. been the first to come up with the bomb. um we were also making things like nylon. we were making um 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 yeah the two slogans. changed uh in the 50s and 60s for Kim. craft they changed it to Porter science. prepares Young America for world. leadership and uh Gilbert uh responded. in kind with today's adventures and. science will create tomorrow's America. and it was this idea like I think uh.

even AC Gilbert the founder like. included a note that said hello boys it. said hello boys M uh the need for. chemist is greater now than any point in. our country's history uh 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 um if you're. interested in science just wait cuz. there's a career out there waiting for. you 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 um world's most dangerous. toy it was it bag of glass it was even. worse than that although I don't know at. the the end of the day I think bag of. glass might be worse uh that of of.

course was from the great Saturday Night. Live uh from the 70s I think Dan arroy. but we did or maybe you did back in the. day when we were tasked with doing uh. what are they called what do we call. them image. Galleries and you did something on. dangerous toys and I think I REM like. this was in there because I remember we. 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. mhm yeah it had real uranium in it 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 uh it it was a legit Real. Deal science box um it had a Geer. counter in it thank God had something. called a spinos scope which you could.

look through it's almost like a um a a. seeing eyeglass no what are they called. like that like aoop a captain would like. pull out the not a telescope like a. seant no it's like that telescope that's. small and pocket size that. telescopes into a smaller version of. itself I me I think it's called. telescope isn't it all right whatever so. it's like that um but you can actually. watch um. radioactive isotopes decaying under this.

thing there was also a cloud chamber in. there which is really impressive that. they had Cloud Chambers yeah is this the. thing you sent yes I did not get a. chance to look over this so feel free. okay so a cloud chamber is um 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 um. you can see the trails of radioactive.

particles moving through the alcohol. Vapor very similar to like a um a. contrail from an airplane if you believe. that those are actually contrails yeah. and um the particles the lower lesser. active radioactive particles um 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. wow I know it was really. impressive well the ones that came with. uranium uh they had you know booklets. one was called prospecting for Uranium. uh that that taught you how to mine a. radioactive ore um so you're thinking. like all right like how literally how. dangerous was this um there have been. modern calculations about you know what. was contained in these boxes and. supposedly the amount of radiation uh.

from the uranium in one of these sets. equaled about a day of UV exposure from. the Sun MH so it's not the most. dangerous thing in the world but it is. pretty funny that it came with like. actual uranium right I couldn't find an. answer though like over what period of. time was it a day worth of UV exposure. like an hour if you spent the day with. this thing like I I couldn't quite nail. it down but I'm from the context that. everybody describes it and it sounds. sounds fairly harmless yeah and it's.

exposure but like what if it's on your. skin or gets in your body somehow near. your teeth that can't be good 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 talk to. a curator at a science museum who opens. one of these and just talks about it um. and she said that they were 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 you know Atomic lab for 500 bucks. yeah and here's the thing it which is. kind of fun we won't read through all. these quotes but a lot of you know legit. Nobel winning chemistry uh chemists over. the years got their start in chemistry. sets I imagine a lot of Real Deal. scientists and chemists um had these. things when they were kids and um we'll. read one from Oliver Sachs uh 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 uh 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 uh 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 uh. that was one of the things that appealed.

to kids and probably still does yeah for. sure um and the problem is is that over. time so like kids who are like I'm. really into this and I I need to learn. to be a responsible chemist because I. want to grow up to be a chemist um 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 their.

family house with these chemistry sets. or injuring themselves and that kind of. coincided with a couple of things one. this um increasing interest in. protecting kids from toys and then two. also uh 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. set started to take a hit yeah for sure. uh in ' 66 Congress passed the child. protection act uh which you know all of. a sudden you could ban a toy that had. something dangerous or hazardous in. there a couple years later uh the US. Department of Health education and. Welfare um they estimated that toys just. all toys caused about. 700,000 injuries a year MH so more. regulations were passed in the late 60s. and early' 70s uh' 7s for like you said.

just cons protecting kids from dangers. and toys and what these toys were made. of in the case of chemistry sets uh like. the chemicals that were in there yeah so. like this increasing um concern among. parents and what are in these chemistry. sets led to a decline in sales and in. fact um Porter chemical and Gilbert the. two Rivals who made chemcraft and. Gilbert chemistry sets were by a toy. maker named Gabriel toys who you might.

recognize that name from othell trouble. the pottery craft activity little set. where you could make your own pottery. remember that it was this little little. pottery wheel probably remember the box. you can you you definitely would but you. could recreate that scene from Ghost but. for cheap yeah yeah as a teenager too. anyway Gabriel um they bought those two. in 1967 and by the 80s they 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 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 M uh but. yeah in the ' 80s they started literally. watering them down watering down the. chemicals uh things you know became. plastic like you didn't get glass test. tubes and metal SC 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 um I think. in 2001 there was a recall of a set. called professor professor Wacko's. exothermic. exuberance uh that had um glycerin and. potassium uh what is that word perangan. it yeah okay great uh and that could. cause things to catch on fire and. spontaneously combust um these these.

this particular kit had containers with. removable Lids but they weren't labeled. so kids were mislabeling things or or. just getting them confused basically. because there were no labels and there. were two separate housefire incident so. that one was recalled and that was uh I. mean that was in the early 2000s it was. surprising those were still around ye uh. yeah I think those people tried to throw. back to like the real deal and it just. didn't quite work uh there was another. one that's a um 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. a I think a mesothelioma causing. carcinogen yeah 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 um a toy maker.

named uh 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 in other words. boring uh this 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 uh whatever they're made out. of the nonat nonat or something 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 um you remember. Dave came up with a bunch of quotes of. Nobel scientists who credit chemistry. sets for like increasing their or. starting their interest in science there. was one other scientist named Carrie. mullus who won the Nobel Prize in.

chemistry in '93 who said that um 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 drug store 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 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. right uh Dave did a little research. though and found that there are some. pretty good ones today that you can. still get uh there are some companies. that are you know trying to make a a. safe version of a real deal chemistry. set these days uh this one called uh I. don't know it's Tims or THS in this case. and Cosmos with a K uh it's called the.

Kim c3000 wow um 280 bucks plus money. for chemicals so it better be good for. that kind of dough 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 years ago it does make sense. that they would rate it though because. um these some of the the legit chemistry. set sent sold today they're for like. home schoolers like 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 oh wow 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 right. so there was another there was another. prong to like be like we need to really. stop making these legit chemistry sets. yeah got anything.

else I got nothing else uh you know. support uh support science for your for. your kids little little girls little. boys give them give them a chemistry set. very nice that's what I say that's right. since Chuck gave us a nice PSA it's time. of course for listener. mail uh I'm going to call this all. caught up uh 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 5 years I finally.

have completed that task uh just. finished listening to the Judas Priest. suicide trial wow 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 in. during Trail runs training for. ultramarathons um by the way Josh has. many times called them ultrathon which. never fails to give me a. chuckle ultrathon is that not a thing I. think they're called ultramarathons. ultrathon is like a a bad guy on in a.

character yeah on some Japanese anime. yeah I like ultrathon uh your voices and. content guys always give me um keep me. in a positive mood even when I'm at the. point of exhaustion uh 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 uh and by the time. this comes out that baby will be around. I would imagine uh cuz we're uh ahead by. a few weeks at this point so keep up the.

great work guys uh 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 uh that's for Matt well Matt we got. a couple hundred people in a room in. Atlanta yeah we can't get worse than. that right yeah I I'd rather go to. Halifax than have a HomeTown show be. undersold you got any barns in Halifax. Matt that we can do a show in I bet Matt.

has a barn uh well congratulations uh in. advance retroactively to you and your. family for your baby's birth and uh if. you want to get in touch with us like. Matt did and tell us how much we've kept. you going on your ultrathon uh you can. do so by sending us an email to stuff. podcast at iheartradio.com. [Music]. stuff you should know is a production of. iHeart radio for more podcasts iHeart.

Radio visit the iHeart Radio app Apple. podcasts or wherever you listen to your. favorite shows. [Music].