61–70 of 190 posts
Something not mentioned is that these things were pretty messy. At least mine was. It burned a mixture of oil and gasoline, and the plane got coated with a film of oil. I only used mine a few times. I found it rather tedious just spinning around in place. Much more exiting were the model rockets that used solid fuel engines.
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They’re making slime out of household cleaning products so yup!
That's a little different from stuff like The Golden Book of Chemistry teaching you to distill alcohol and create chloroform.
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I don't know what toys you have, but my toys today are RC planes with a 25km range that transmit HD video so you can fly them with a first person view.
>>25km Dragonlink, Crossfire, or something else?
For radio it basically doesn't make sense to use anything other than ELRS any more, it's years ahead from anything else.
The 70s really were another country - see also: chemistry sets. These are pale and anodyne things now with a mere handful of bland household-level chemicals - assuming you can even find one in a toy shop at all. But as a lad these were both readily available and full of dozens of intriguing substances that would send a modern health and safety wonk into apoplexy. Who among us did not incinerate all of the supplied ma…
Those sure were different times. I recall in the mid 1970s, as a kid no less, being able to go into a pharmacy and buy sulfur or KNO3 w/o any trouble at all. However it wasn't more than a couple years later, when a request for phosphorus was met with an icy "do I need to call your mother" stare, that my budding career as a chemist came to an end. Besides, the Radio Shack across the street had this computer set up for…
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My biggest concern about modern toys is that we have dumbed them down to work for the lowest common denominator. That's why a 3 year old today can (with a bit of training) assemble 12+ LEGO sets. Back in the day, when I was playing with LEGO Mindstorms, I thought the fact that you compile binaries and flash them with a USB cable was a feature, because it gave you full control. There was even alternative OS choices li…
>My biggest concern about modern toys is that we have dumbed them down to work for the lowest common denominator. That's why a 3 year old today can (with a bit of training) assemble 12+ LEGO sets. I think Lego is the perfect example of this. I never understood the point of it as a kid. Why would I want something that comes with an instruction booklet to recreate the exact thing shown on the box? Why wouldn't I just a…
The 70s really were another country - see also: chemistry sets. These are pale and anodyne things now with a mere handful of bland household-level chemicals - assuming you can even find one in a toy shop at all. But as a lad these were both readily available and full of dozens of intriguing substances that would send a modern health and safety wonk into apoplexy. Who among us did not incinerate all of the supplied ma…
Who among us lit up the chunk of sulphur and (out of innocent curiosity) took a good snork off it, realizing too late that it was a stupid thing to do ? I sure did. Tinkering with chemistry also motivated me to look for sources of hydrochloric and sulphuric acids, but in New York state the guy at the pharmacy said I needed parental permission. Wasn't gonna happen.
Sulphuric acid: No, hardware stores don't sell that here. You can get it from car batteries, and builders use the strong stuff for clearing drains. I have no idea how I could legally buy fuming sulphuric acid.
Nitric acid: Even less. Fuming nitric and sulphuric acid mixed gives you nitrating acid, which in turn is the gateway to nitrocellulose (and I suppose nitroglycerine), fulminate of mercury, and ghod knows what.
It's just as well that these latter two acids are restricted; if they weren't, I'm quite sure I'd have tried to make guncotton, and probably blown myself up.
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Those sure were different times. I recall in the mid 1970s, as a kid no less, being able to go into a pharmacy and buy sulfur or KNO3 w/o any trouble at all. However it wasn't more than a couple years later, when a request for phosphorus was met with an icy "do I need to call your mother" stare, that my budding career as a chemist came to an end. Besides, the Radio Shack across the street had this computer set up for…
Sulphur? My local hardware store sells flours of sulphur for gardeners. It's used for acidulating soil, and for combatting some kinds of fungus. I don't know why anyone would want to regulate the sale of elemental sulphur; it's not toxic, caustic or explosive. It's less flammable than a piece of wood.
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Sulphur? My local hardware store sells flours of sulphur for gardeners. It's used for acidulating soil, and for combatting some kinds of fungus. I don't know why anyone would want to regulate the sale of elemental sulphur; it's not toxic, caustic or explosive. It's less flammable than a piece of wood.
GP mentions S and HNO3 in the same sentence. Those 2 combined with charcoal results in black powder.
And is black powder so scary? You can get it out of firecrackers, which are sold (here) without ID, although I guess you might have to prove your age to buy fireworks. It doesn't detonate, so it can't be used to prime a high-explosive like ammonium nitrate fertilizer.
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That's a little different from stuff like The Golden Book of Chemistry teaching you to distill alcohol and create chloroform.
I used my chemistry set also to distill wine and drink the results, and for what I recall, it tasted good. Problem is that I was like 12, but did that only a couple times: creating stinking bubbling blobs was a lot more fun.
The 70s really were another country - see also: chemistry sets. These are pale and anodyne things now with a mere handful of bland household-level chemicals - assuming you can even find one in a toy shop at all. But as a lad these were both readily available and full of dozens of intriguing substances that would send a modern health and safety wonk into apoplexy. Who among us did not incinerate all of the supplied ma…
[Spanish] https://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/vigo/2014/12/21/jugand...