Things you could order over 50 years ago that you can't order now !

[BravoXray]

Remember these?
View attachment 755913

I built a crystal radio when I was 12 or 13. Wound the tuning coil on a cardboard tube and got the crystal detector through the mail, Edmund Scientific maybe. Dad got me the headphones for my birthday one of those years. I was able to pick up several local radio stations with it. It helped that I had a 50' long antenna wire hung outside.

Got an Erector Set for Christmas when I was only 5 or 6, damn near wore that thing out, still have the metal case, but only a few pieces. A few years later, I got a chemistry set, made all kinds of toxic stuff, and still have a scar on my wrist from when I spilled some hot witches brew on myself.

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

Sometimes we would make chili or spaghetti and not tell anyone...!

The only time I did acid was when some jerk cubed me. I did not enjoy either experience. First one I tried to hide in the local theater, which the last time I walked by had been showing a spaghetti western.

I went in, sat down, and was confronted by the oompa-loompas, rowing the boat down the tunnel. Definitely not Clint Eastwood. Never having read Willy Wonka, I was more than a bit confused, and went to the lobby to get a soda.

Met one of the very Mormon girls from school who was there with her herd of younger siblings. She expressed surprise that I was at the theater watching Willie Wonka. I was so glad to discover that my brain wasn’t fried, that I grabbed her and gave her a huge hug. Which to my surprise she returned. Ended up dating her for a year or so, until we moved.

 

[BravoXray]

It the ninth grade I had a science teacher that openly admitted to "experimenting" with LSD...in the class just before mine he exposed some barium to an oxygen environment and started the lab on fire...we had to sit in the cafeteria while he cleaned the mess the firemen left...!

In freshman chemistry class one time, Mr. Windbigler the teacher was demonstrating a thermite reaction, on his desk. The water can under it was not up to catching the molten iron when it dribbled out of the crucible, and it burned through the can, desk top, drawer and stopped on the hardwood floor. Best chemistry demonstration ever!
I still have a picture of the aftermath somewhere, as I was into photography and always had my Honeywell 35mm SLR on me.

 

[JasperFrank]

Don't know if you can buy them today, but the nets to Coleman gas lamps were radioactive. That's how they could get so much light out of them.
Had a very strange conversation with a passenger on a cross country flight back in the late 70's to a DC area airport. He had a brief case, full of stuff, I'm guessing it was lead lined, and a Geiger counter and wanted to share, or at least tell me something. Said he had something he was invited to present to Congress.
Sometimes we sit next to very strange people on plane flights.
First, at when we got to 30K altitude, he started up the counter and it was near off the scale. He said this was cosmic rays hitting the metal frame of the plane, and sending off radiation. I thought this to be a joke, till I looked it up much later and found some of it to be true. You are being irradiated when you fly at 30K feet or so. Its like having 6 chest x-rays on a long flight But he had another thing he wanted to show me, which was a coleman lamp net. He took one out of the case and the Geiger counter was pegged. This not an Urban Legend . Cause, I experienced this first hand. If he was playing a joke on me, that's Okay. But was it a joke or real? I do not know. I did later test the Coleman lamp nets, and found that they are indeed radioactive.

 

[/pine]

We used both Aida and Petromax fuel lamps for fishing (they are like high end Coleman lanterns)...they're all stainless and use a variety of fuels...kerosene, mineral spirits etc. etc...we always knew about the "mantels" being radioactive...

 

[SouthernSky]

It seems to me that many young people in the 60s and 70s did a little experimenting at that time and denied it through the 80s, 90, and 00s because the climate was not right, but now in the 20s, find the climate change is enough for them to admit what they have been hiding all these years. Even right wing, conservative people were young at one time.

I remember weed in high school was $40 an ounce for Acapulco Gold or Maui Wowie. I couldn’t afford it so I didn’t partake.

I would have no hesitation to do edibles now, if only I lived in a state where recreational was legal and available. Smoke would be too harsh, but a chocolate bar or gummie bear to feel more .. creative .. I believe I would find enjoyable!

 

[2LaneCruzer]

Roy Orbison always wore sunglasses.

Maybe not always. I saw him in concert in 1959, with Johnny Cash. He didn't wear them then, and when he got on stage, they couldn't find his guitar, so he borrowed one from the band.

 

[ponytug]

Don't know if you can buy them today, but the nets to Coleman gas lamps were radioactive. That's how they could get so much light out of them.
Had a very strange conversation with a passenger on a cross country flight back in the late 70's to a DC area airport. He had a brief case, full of stuff, I'm guessing it was lead lined, and a Geiger counter and wanted to share, or at least tell me something. Said he had something he was invited to present to Congress.
Sometimes we sit next to very strange people on plane flights.
First, at when we got to 30K altitude, he started up the counter and it was near off the scale. He said this was cosmic rays hitting the metal frame of the plane, and sending off radiation. I thought this to be a joke, till I looked it up much later and found some of it to be true. You are being irradiated when you fly at 30K feet or so. Its like having 6 chest x-rays on a long flight But he had another thing he wanted to show me, which was a coleman lamp net. He took one out of the case and the Geiger counter was pegged. This not an Urban Legend . Cause, I experienced this first hand. If he was playing a joke on me, that's Okay. But was it a joke or real? I do not know. I did later test the Coleman lamp nets, and found that they are indeed radioactive.

True!

The mantles (nets) contain silk/cotton/nylon impregnated thorium. As a high temperature oxide, thorium oxide is important for the stability and function of the mantles. As thorium is present as an isotope (232Th) that is an alpha particle emitter, be very careful around the dust from a broken mantle! Don't take a deep breath to blow away the ash; it is a great way to suck radioactive particles into your lungs.

Incandescent Gas Lantern Mantles

www.orau.org

Needless to say, the exhaust from a gas mantle contains a few thorium particles, and is therefore radioactive, so using one in an enclosed space isn't ideal, and as the lanterns are also sources of carbon monoxide, there is another reason not to use a gas lantern in an enclosed space.

IIRC: Aladdin made a version based on a kerosene wick lamp that was stunningly brighter than a normal kerosene lamp, and required a rather tall glass chimney to get enough draft.

Gypsum, e.g. drywall, is radioactive for the same reason and a major source of radon in tightly sealed homes. Gypsum contains uranium as well as thorium, and both decay to radium, which decays to radon.

Radioactive Material From Fertilizer Production | US EPA

Phosphate rock contains the mineral phosphorus, an ingredient used in some fertilizers to help plants grow strong roots. Phosphate rock contains small amounts of naturally-occurring radionuclides, mostly uranium and radium.

www.epa.gov

Don't forget "red/yellow" tungsten TIG tips, some of which contain a fair amount of thorium (2%), which you want to be very careful not to breath the dust, and contain any dust from sharpening. I never understood why some welders thought it was safe/smart to use a powered grinder to sharpen blue tungsten as it sends thorium everywhere.

The health risk with thorium dust in your lungs is that is an alpha emitter. The particles don't go far, but the alpha radiation is enormously damaging to cells in general, and the delicate tissue of lungs in particular.

All the best,

Peter

 

[ultrarunner]

True!

The mantles (nets) contain silk/cotton/nylon impregnated thorium. As a high temperature oxide, thorium oxide is important for the stability and function of the mantles. As thorium is present as an isotope (232Th) that is an alpha particle emitter, be very careful around the dust from a broken mantle! Don't take a deep breath to blow away the ash; it is a great way to suck radioactive particles into your lungs.

Incandescent Gas Lantern Mantles

www.orau.org

Needless to say, the exhaust from a gas mantle contains a few thorium particles, and is therefore radioactive, so using one in an enclosed space isn't ideal, and as the lanterns are also sources of carbon monoxide, there is another reason not to use a gas lantern in an enclosed space.

IIRC: Aladdin made a version based on a kerosene wick lamp that was stunningly brighter than a normal kerosene lamp, and required a rather tall glass chimney to get enough draft.

Gypsum, e.g. drywall, is radioactive for the same reason and a major source of radon in tightly sealed homes. Gypsum contains uranium as well as thorium, and both decay to radium, which decays to radon.

Radioactive Material From Fertilizer Production | US EPA

Phosphate rock contains the mineral phosphorus, an ingredient used in some fertilizers to help plants grow strong roots. Phosphate rock contains small amounts of naturally-occurring radionuclides, mostly uranium and radium.

www.epa.gov

Don't forget "blue" tungsten TIG tips, some of which contain a fair amount of thorium (2%), which you want to be very careful not to breath the dust, and contain any dust from sharpening. I never understood why some welders thought it was safe/smart to use a powered grinder to sharpen blue tungsten as it sends thorium everywhere.

The health risk with thorium dust in your lungs is that is an alpha emitter. The particles don't go far, but the alpha radiation is enormously damaging to cells in general, and the delicate tissue of lungs in particular.

All the best,

Peter

Never realized Tig tips are radio active...

It was standard practice to use the vertical belt sander in the shop.to shape.

 

[grsthegreat]

just when you thought it was safe to go camping..........radioactive lights