Remember these atomic age toys?

[boingboing]

Originally published at: Remember these atomic age toys? | Boing Boing

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[FGD135]

Oh, they have a fantastic collection, and most (all?) of it is online.
Check out the section on radioactive quack cures!

[FGD135]

[bashful]

Am I old enough to remember the atomic age? Not sure.

Do I own a number of wristwatches with radium (and tritium) on their dials and hands? Yes, definitely.

[SpunkyTWS]

I know the spinthariscopes that came in cereal boxes were probably safe as long as you didn’t open them but the idea of putting something containing Polonium-210, with a half-life of about 140 days, up to my eye makes me extremely uncomfortable.

[jamiewindham]

I remember visiting the Oak Ridge National Labratory in about 1966 at the age of 12 and they had a machine that would irradiate a dime that you could keep as a souvenir. I think the half life of silver is pretty short, but it was cool to me to have a dime that was at least a little bit radioactive. I think I still have the dime.

[atl]

I was just at that museum in September. It’s a great museum and I got a one-on-one tour with one of the docents, a German fellow who works at Sandia on nuclear weapons design. Spent probably 45 minutes with me helping me geek out. And the atomic toys museum was indeed awesome.

Although perhaps my favorite thing in the museum was this.

[Tsu_Dho_Nimh]

I had that Atomic Energy Lab … and a minerals set with uranium ore and the thing you looked at the ore through (in your dark closet) to see the radiation hit your retinas!

Kids today are such wimps!

[SmilingDemon]

[RickMycroft]

[FGD135]

[FGD135]

Uranium in a cloud chamber:

ETA:

Gilbert U-238 Atomic Energy Laboratory