The wiki article says it was invented to look for expensive radioactive dust sized particles that were spilled. If the sample was cheap and easily replaced, this device would never have been invented and marketed to children. Kind of spoils that ideal we all have of the graceful scientist, moving like a dancer, with their flasks and retorts, moving among the lab benches and chemical stores with panache and style, performing experiments we can only dream of in our wildest Hollywood fantasies.
5 comments:
I had one as a child, it came with a chemistry set, also probably unsafe and illegal nowadays.
Says here they are still being made and sold today:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinthariscope
And I see a You Tube video on how to make your own.
Yeah, you can get one at United Nuclear.
Can't be worse than the machine the shoe store showed my mother how my feet looked inside the shoes.
The wiki article says it was invented to look for expensive radioactive dust sized particles that were spilled. If the sample was cheap and easily replaced, this device would never have been invented and marketed to children. Kind of spoils that ideal we all have of the graceful scientist, moving like a dancer, with their flasks and retorts, moving among the lab benches and chemical stores with panache and style, performing experiments we can only dream of in our wildest Hollywood fantasies.
Post a Comment