- If you were to Google the
world's most dangerous toy,
this is actually what will
pop up on your screen:
the Atomic Energy Lab Kit by A.C. Gilbert.
It's because it comes with
three sources of radiation
and four uranium ores
that are also radioactive.
My name is Voula Saridakis.
I'm a curator here at the
Museum of Science and Industry
in Chicago.
Now, A.C. Gilbert claimed,
and the makers claimed,
that there was nothing dangerous about it.
It really did emit very, very
low amounts of radiation.
But I probably would
not encourage children
to hold these samples next
to their body all day long.
It looks like a lovely
little red paper suitcase
with snakeskin (it's not snakeskin)
on the outside of the box.
And when you open it, you
see this lovely picture
of a young man who is working
the Wilson cloud chamber.
It comes with an instruction booklet,
the comic book How
Dagwood Splits the Atom,
and it comes with a book on how
to prospect uranium as well.
You could use your own
Geiger counter to do that,
because the kit comes with
its very own Geiger
counter, with batteries,
and it also comes with these rubber balls
that are red and green with little rods
so that you can build your
own models of alpha particles.
The Wilson cloud chamber,
which you assemble,
so that you could actually see
the vapor trails of alpha particles.
The spinthariscope,
just a tube with a lens,
so you look through it
and you can actually see
what's called scintillations,
which is basically alpha decay.
It also comes with an electroscope.
It has a scale and indicator inside of it,
and you look through the
tube and you can actually see
how much ionization radiation comes from
the particular source that you're using.
And you can use either the
alpha, beta, or gamma sources,
or you can use one of
the four uranium ores
that come with the kit.
They made fewer than 5,000 of these units.
They were only made in 1950
and 1951, and they sold poorly.
They were discontinued
after only two years.
And the reason for that is not because
of any radioactivity concerns,
but rather because it was
expensive. It was $50,
and in 1950, $50 is the equivalent
of about $520 by today's standards.
And that's pretty expensive.
It's like a black box of
science and technology,
but then you open it like Pandora's box
and then you play with it,
and then you realize
later on down the road
that there might be some
hidden dangers there.
