Gilbert U-238. When atomic power was experienced at home.

One Christmas day many years ago, in a gift box lined with white and blue paper, I found my first Chemistry Set. An actual miniature laboratory with test tubes, loops, cannulas, beakers, litmus paper, an alcohol stove and various not-at-all harmless substances. Very different from similar and safer toys found on the market today, but certainly not as dangerous as the set sold by the Gilbert Company in the early 1950s.

Little chemists grow up

The first known portable chemistry set dates back to 1791. Thanks to it, chemists, physicists, mineralogists and natural philosophers could finally carry out simple experiments at home without needing a real laboratory. However, it was costly equipment, intended mainly for professionals.

It will take half a century to see on the market more economical sets within reach of elementary school teachers. Thanks to the kits produced by the British company John J. Griffin & Sons, children became spectators of astounding experiments in which matter changed shape, color, objects liquefied, solidified or dissolved in a cloud of steam.

But the outbreak of World War I put the educational chemistry industry in Europe in crisis. Most of the elements on the market came from Germany, where industries were committed to supporting the war effort. Across the ocean, however, war was still a distant event.

In 1914, in Hagerstown, a small industrial hub in Maryland, the Porter Chemical Company was born, the first to manufacture chemistry sets for kids. The following year, the Porter’s Chemical Set was sold in different versions ranging from ten to one hundred items, with prices starting at $ 1. Success was immediate, but the Porter monopoly was soon threatened by a new competitor: Alfred Carlton Gilbert.

The Walt Disney of chemistry

Gilbert was a visionary. Some consider him one of the most brilliant minds in the United States, along with Walt Disney. He had become famous for inventing the Erector Set, known worldwide as Meccano. Gilbert entered the field of scientific toys by producing microscopes. In the 1920s, he launched Chemical Magic, a kit that treated chemistry like a show, with advice on how to present experiments to the audience, set design, and how to dress and behave “on stage”.

In the 1950s, science subjects became the backbone of American education. The Boy Scouts of America promoted science. Popular science shows were produced, including Watch Mr.Wizard, one of the most popular shows on American TV, where new experiments were shown every day. There wasn’t a single boy who didn’t own a chemistry set or wanted one.

Porter and Gilbert did all they could to stand out from each other, competing with advertisements in magazines, newspapers, and comic books. Although other competitors emerged, they dominated the market. Porter Chemical coined a motto that perfectly reflected the spirit of the time: “Porter Science Prepares Young America For World Leadership”. At the same time, the Gilbert Company came out with a surprising idea.

The secrets of atomic energy

In 1950, Gilbert launched a new scientific game that promised to reveal to children the secrets of nuclear energy. But was not a theory or a simple simulation. Sold for $49.50, a whopping $534.60 today, the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab was a real radioactive toy.

Inside the box, boys found minerals containing uranium: autunite, torbernite, uraninite, and carnotite. The set also had a Geiger-Müller counter to measure radiation, a Wilson fog chamber (an airtight box to see alpha particles moving in a cloud of steam at 10,000 miles per second), and a spinthariscope to observe nuclear decay, and an electroscope to measure radioactivity. Completing the set were the Atomic Energy Manual, containing instructions on how to use the instruments and conduct experiments, and a comic strip featuring Dagwood (from the Blondie series), entitled Learn How Dagwood Split The Atom, written under the advice of Major General Leslie Groves, director of the Manhattan Project, the US government research program from which the atomic bomb was born. All that was missing was a protective suit.

Gilbert reassured apprehensive parents. A note in the Atomic Energy Lab package stated that the four ores were low in radioactivity, and children were in no danger.

Compared to other radioactive materials, Uranium 238 is non-fissile. It cannot start a nuclear-type chain reaction, and the alpha particles emitted from the mineral are easily blocked by the skin. But the consequences can be severe if the person handling the substance has minor injuries, as often happens to children. When it gets into the bloodstream, U-238 spreads to organs and can cause lung and bone cancer. At high concentrations, it can damage the kidneys and increases the risk of leukemia and soft tissue cancer. Some of the soldiers who fought in the Persian Gulf and the Balkans know this well. U-238, is also known as “depleted uranium”.

The Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab remained on sale for only a year before it was withdrawn from the market, and we do not know what consequences it had for those who owned it. In 2006 the radar magazine, a US entertainment publication, included it in the list of the ten most dangerous games in history. Even if it is still possible today to buy the Atomic Energy Lab on eBay, hardly any parent would ever buy one for their child.

To know more:

• Bruce Watson. «Hello Boys! Become an Erector Master Engineer!» Smithsonian Magazine Online.
• Henry Nicholls. «The chemistry set generation». Chemistry World.
• Elisabeth Berry Drago. «Hazardous Fun. Was This Really the World’s Most Dangerous Toy?» Science History Institute.
• Jow Musial. «Learn how Dagwood splits the atom». King Features Syndacate, 1949.
• Rosanne DiVernieri. «Stinks and Bangs: The Heyday of the Chemistry Set». Endeavour 32, n. 3 (September 2008): 107–10.
• «Toxicological Profile for Uranium». U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, February 2013, Section 3.4, 195–210.
• «Uranium: Its Uses and Hazards — Institute for Energy and Environmental Research».
• Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. «World’s Most Dangerous Toy? Radioactive Atomic Energy Lab Kit with Uranium (1950)».