I had one of these. But I was 72 when I bought it in 1954. I knew something was up when I outlived my first set of grandchildren.
-- Jonathan Sherwood Sr. Science & Technology Press Officer University of Rochester 585-273-4726 On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 8:21 AM, Dana Paxson <[email protected]> wrote: > I owned one of those. > > I was nine years old. It came in a huge (nine-year-old huge) red suitcase > with everything carefully packed. My dad's best high-school buddy and his > wife had no kids, so they became godparents to my sisters and me. They gave > me the set. > > It was amazing to look through the spinthariscope at the different kinds of > scintillations from the different radiation sources. I even got the cloud > chamber to work a little -- it was tricky. But the Geiger counter, now THAT > was a lot of fun. I took it all over the house looking for things that made > it tick. All was quiet until I got into the kitchen. Then it became one of > those "You're getting warmer... now you're getting colder" games. I got > near one section of counter and suddenly it got hot. > > I looked through the drawers with my counter ticking faster and faster. > Then it went wild. I pulled out some dishes, and one of them was spitting > radiation like crazy. It far outstripped the gamma source from the kit in > its intensity. I was so excited I called to my mother, who was mostly > amused. My father, when he got home, smiled. I was a little frustrated. > > The plate, a lovely ceramic platter my parents used for serving snacks and > desserts, was glazed a bright shade of orange. From then on it was known as > "the radioactive plate". None of us knew why, and we kept using it. > Radiation in the 1950s was more of a curiosity than a threat, except of > course if the Reds had it. The plate stayed in my mother's house until she > died last year. Many well-presented foodstuffs passed through its glow and > were eaten by family, friends, and guests. > > The kit fell victim to childhood wear, tear, and breakage, and finally > ended up being tossed out. I regret that loss, along with the loss of > Lionel trains and other things of the time that now would fetch a lot of > attention. > > A few years ago I finally did the Web research and found Fiesta ware, which > had those brilliant reds and oranges and yellows in the glaze. The colors > came from uranium oxides, normally found in ore but also made available from > the tailings at the uranium refineries producing bomb-grade U-235. The > tailings were supposed to be low in radioactivity. Eventually the > government clamped down, and use of the tailings was... curtailed. A good > thing, no doubt. > > The family plate, purchased in the 1940s, wasn't Fiesta ware by its brand > name, which I now forget. That made me a bit more suspicious that perhaps > its glaze contained radioactive tailings from one of those refineries. > > And without my trusty Gilbert Atomic Energy Lab, I would never have had > this story to tell. > > > SteveC wrote: > > I'm definitely going back in time and suing my parents for never > buying me the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy > Lab.http://www.orau.org/ptp/collection/atomictoys/GilbertU238Lab.htm > > The set came with four types of uranium ore, a beta-alpha source (Pb-210), > a pure beta source (Ru-106), a gamma source (Zn-65?), a spinthariscope, a > cloud chamber with its own short-lived alpha source (Po-210), an > electroscope, a geiger counter, a manual, a comic book (Dagwood Splits the > Atom) and a government manual "Prospecting for Uranium." > > > Click on the Atomic Toys link for more great relics of the Atomic Age. > Turns out that this is from the Oak Ridge Museum. > > > > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "R-SPEC: The Rochester Speculative Literature Association" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/r-spec?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
