Nuclear Families & Their Uranium Toys
The story of a science kit that sent Uranium to kids in 1950.
“Watch Atomic Disintegration of Radioactive Materials Right Before Your Eyes!”
“See Paths Taken By Alpha Particles Travelling at more than 12000 miles per second!”
“Actually Prospect for Uranium with Geiger-Muller Counter”
“Completely safe and harmless!”
The brochure of the ‘Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab’. It was meant for kids.
Yeah. You read that correctly. Uranium for kids. Sounds like it’s part of a dystopic future invented during the second world war. It kind of was?
The Gilbert U-234 Atomic Energy Lab was a Toy Lab Set designed by Alfred Carlton Gilbert. Apart from being a magician, an Olympic athlete, an inventor, and a businessperson, he was a toy-maker. Among the many things he built, this was an attempt to make people understand atomic energy, think of great applications, and not fear it.
Check out this 3-minute video that shows you what’s inside the kit.
Priced at 50$ in 1950, it was one of the most expensive toys you could buy, by far. By today’s standards, that’s about USD 550$ (INR 40k). (The Barbie dream house is about INR 20k for reference )
Here’s what came in the box:
Battery-powered Geiger–Müller counter
Electroscope
Spinthariscope
Wilson cloud chamber with a short-lived alpha source (Po-210) in the form of a wire
Four glass jars containing natural uranium-bearing (U-238) ore samples
Low-level radiation sources
"Nuclear spheres" for making a model of an alpha particle
Gilbert Atomic Energy Manual — a 60-page instruction book written by Dr. Ralph E. Lapp
Learn How Dagwood Split the Atom — comic book introduction to radioactivity.
(You also got a 10,000$ reward for finding Uranium deposits! )
I stumbled upon this earlier this week and it just blew my mind that there was a time when you could purchase toys with uranium in it and conduct your own nuclear energy experiments!
The toy sold poorly mostly because of its price and complexity and stopped production in a couple of years. You can still buy these from original owners, except it’ll set you back about 5000$ or more if you find them in the first place.
The set gets a bad rap in recent times, winning multiple awards for the most dangerous toys in history but the reality is not as scary
“…the risk from the uranium-238 in Gilbert’s U-238 Atomic Energy Lab was minimal, about the equivalent to a day’s UV exposure from the sun. And the kit had the beneficial effect of teaching that radioactivity is a naturally occurring phenomena. Bananas are mildly radioactive, after all, as are Brazil nuts and lima beans. To be sure, experts don’t recommend ingesting uranium or carrying it around in your pocket for extended periods of time. Perhaps it was too much to expect that every kid would abide by the kit’s clear warning. But despite sometimes being called the “most dangerous toy in the world,” Gilbert’s U-238 Atomic Energy Lab was unlikely to have ever produced a glowing child.”
Hope you enjoyed learning about this!
Have you heard of any other toys like this? Things that explore maybe quantum physics or dark matter? Or something you played with, in your childhood that doesn’t exist today? Let me know in the comments section!
Atomically,
Prasanth
p.s. speaking of atoms, remember atom ant?
Up and at’em!