3 ms·
Well, I reckon that kit was somewhat more risky than the circular disc of uranium of about 1.5 inches in diameter and about 0.25" thick we experimented with at
by hilbert42 4y ago
Well, I reckon that kit was somewhat more risky than the circular disc of uranium of about 1.5 inches in diameter and about 0.25" thick we experimented with at school. The beta and gamma sources were in the form of foil about 1cm square but I don't know or can't remember what the sources were.
As a kid, I'd loved to have had one of those Gilbert kits (at least back then we had chemistry sets that actually did exciting things).
- chasil 4y agoThe wiki states that less than 5000 kits were sold, due to the high price. These were quite rare.
- hilbert42 4y agoI'd anecdotally heard some reference to kits of that kind being around somewhat before my time but I'd not have been able to link the name 'Gilbert' to it if my life depended on it. I think by the '60s things had tightened somewhat. Low level radioactive sources were still available in school labs (so were 'risky' chemicals and large amounts of Hg long since banned—also making black powder was still a core subject and we made and tested it and were expected to know its chemical equation). But by say(?) the mid '50s those x-ray foot measuring devices in shoe shops had been banned. I recall seeing one in a shoe shop when I was a young kid that had been relegated to a corner and being very miffed that I couldn't measure my feet in it (it had some sort of viewer to look through and a diagram on the outside showing a foot skeleton versus shoe size or such and that took my fancy).