Alfred Gilbert’s Laboratory, 1950–1951. The kit included a cloud chamber, a spinthariscope, an electroscope, jars of uranium ore, and sources of Lead-210, Polonium-210, Ruthenium-106, and Zinc-65…
A much more common radium watch dial emits far more radiation than the uranium ores in these lab kits – especially gamma radiation, which is the kind that actually penetrates human skin.
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A much more common radium watch dial emits far more radiation than the uranium ores in these lab kits – especially gamma radiation, which is the kind that actually penetrates human skin.
[US Department of Energy essay on this kit](https://www.energy.gov/lm/articles/holiday-toy-shopping-during-1950s-looked-bit-different-during-2020s#:~:text=The%20Atomic%20Energy%20Lab%20Kit,today%20would%20cost%20about%20%24530)
Retail price at the time was $49.50 which is somewhere between $500 and $600 today.
I should take more effort in reading, as I was wondering what a „sphinkteriscope“ could be..
This would be *so much cooler* to get than one of those 200-in-one electronics things, or a cat’s whisker crystal radio kit…
There’s one on display at the [Nat’l Museum of Nuclear Science](https://www.nuclearmuseum.org/).
Behind leaded glass.
They have a lot of displays behind leaded glass.
There’s also a 1:1 replica of first atomic bomb outside the museum.
Kinda weird to see when hitting Costco across the street.