The approach of World War I quickly dried up that supply, as manufacturers diverted remaining resources to the war effort chemistry set production declined. Many kits were assembled in England, but the chemicals came from Germany. The kits contained glassware, chemicals, perhaps a scale or a mortar and pestle, and other necessary equipment for carrying out chemical tests in medicine, geology or other scientific fields or for classroom instruction.
Skilcraft chemlab sears 1980s portable#
The toy chemistry set has its roots in late 18th- and 19th-century portable chemistry kits sold in boxes like this to scientists and students for practical use. A green label on the inside of the lid gives the original purpose of this now-empty box: “G. Seeger shows me a small, brown wooden box, circa 1845, about ten-inches square, inset with a small relief of silvery metal, depicting what appears to be a scene from a ship, with men in pantaloons holding swords. The story of how the chemistry set rose to such prominence and then fell follows the arc of 20th-century America, from its rise as a hub of new commerce to an era of scientific discovery, and reflects the changing values and fears of the American people. The museum’s collection contains several brightly colored kits harkening from the toy’s brief heyday in the early- to mid-20th century, when the chemistry set was the must-have toy for the budding scientist. “They weren’t very good with chemistry,” Seeger says, which may explain the donor’s career choice. One of the museum’s librarians donated the kit he and his brother had played with it as children. The previous owners hadn’t let a few missing pieces stop them, though the kit was supplemented with a set of plastic measuring spoons that appear to have been stolen from a mother’s kitchen. Curator Ann Seeger pulls the mid-20th-century Gilbert kit out of a glass-fronted cabinet in the back of a cluttered storeroom at the National Museum of American History and opens the bright blue wooden box, revealing that several bottles of chemicals are missing and some vials have lost their labels.
The chemistry set had clearly seen better days.
0 kommentar(er)
