Atomic Toys – Vintage Nuclear Education?
June 21, 2011
The Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab is a toy lab set produced by Alfred Carlton Gilbert (the inventor of the Erector Set) and sold between 1950 and 1951.
The set originally sold for $49.50 (or $458.99 in today’s US dollars) and contained the following:
Gilbert Atomic Energy Lab - circa 1950s
- U-239 Geiger counter
- Electroscope
- Spinthariscope
- Wilson cloud chamber
- Low-level radiation sources:
- Alpha particles (Pb-210 and Po-210)
- Beta particles (Ru-106)
- Gamma particles (possibly Zn-65)
- Four Uranium-bearing ore samples
- Nuclear spheres for making a molecular model
- Prospecting for Uranium — a book
- Gilbert Atomic Energy Manual
- “Learn How Dagwood Split the Atom” comic book
- Three C batteries
- 1951 Gilbert Toys catalogue
See the full Wikipedia entry for the Atomic Energy Lab
There are many more atomic toys where this came from. Are any of them familiar to you?
