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I found this somewhat funny (cut from an article about toy recalls):

the Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Lab for instance. What sounds like a top-secret military project was in reality a short-lived toy from the early 1950s -- and an expensive toy at that ($50 at the time, or more than $300 in today's dollars).
The toy was the most elaborate atomic energy educational set ever produced, containing actual uranium ore. Say what you will about current safety standards, but you can be pretty sure not many of today's toys are radioactive.

Here is the article

I had a lot of Gilbert items but not that one.

I had a cloud chamber that used a small bit of radium.

I would have thought it was the coolest toy ever! I wouldn't call it the worst; just the most dangerous...

All of my toys contained actual Uranus.....

lb13

Vague Mini wrote:I would have thought it was the coolest toy ever! I wouldn't call it the worst; just the most dangerous...

I'll bet they tested it on squirrels and possums....

lb13

littlebeast13 wrote:

Vague Mini wrote:I would have thought it was the coolest toy ever! I wouldn't call it the worst; just the most dangerous...

I'll bet they tested it on squirrels and possums....

lb13

Found it!

I was born in the 1950s, but my parents never bought me that kit. However, some of my friends got it and loved playing with it. There was Bobby --



and little Johnny --



and, of course, Loretta --

littlebeast13 wrote:

Vague Mini wrote:I would have thought it was the coolest toy ever! I wouldn't call it the worst; just the most dangerous...

I'll bet they tested it on squirrels and possums....

lb13

That is an LOL-worthy avatar! It will win!

When I was about 10 years old, I got radium treatments to help clear up my sinuses. There was a little piece of radium on the tip of something that looked like a Fourth of July sparkler, and they inserted it inside my nose and left it there for about 10-20 minutes each nostril (the sparkler was kept inside what I'm guessing was a lead ball that looked like a construction wrecking ball). I had either two or three of those treatments a few days apart, and I remember the doctor telling my mother and I to be sure that I never got the treatment again because it would expose me to too much radiation.

Then I would read in school about nuclear scientists who died of radiation poisoning and how the effects are cumulative and I really started to flake out wondering if I might get radiation poisoning if I ever got another x-ray.

franktangredi wrote:I was born in the 1950s, but my parents never bought me that kit. However, some of my friends got it and loved playing with it. There was Bobby --



and little Johnny --



and, of course, Loretta --

You always said, Loretta was quite the looker.

Ray