banned :: the golden book of chemistry experiments
The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments was a children’s chemistry book written in the 1960s by Robert Brent and illustrated by Harry Lazarus, showing how to set up your own home laboratory and conduct over 200 experiments.
The book is controversial, as many of the experiments contained in the book are now considered too dangerous for the general public. There are apparently only 126 copies of this book in libraries worldwide. Despite this, its known as one of the best DIY chemistry books every published.
It was also a source of inspiration to teenager David Hahn, who tried to collect a sample of every chemical element and also built a model nuclear reactor in his back shed in the 1990′s.
Because it was published in 1960, before the US copyright laws were rewritten, and the original copyright was never renewed, it’s legal now to share it with you online.
OpenMaterials has cached it here, and you can also download it from scribd. The pdf contains 114 scanned pages and is 27.9mb.
Below is the table of contents-
this was an awesome book! I remember downloading this a couple years ago — totally worth a read. actually there were quite a few science books in this era that were ridiculously better than our stuff nowadays. I have a book on electricity that is very similar to this book
ian – i love books from this era too. is the electricity book you mention online/public domain? openMaterials is happy to mirror resources like this to keep them accessible for everyone
I am always looking for inspiration for open-ended labs in my high school chem class, and this will work great!
Kinda reminds me of a 50s sci-fi show that opened with a bizarre science experiment that could only be done in the ’50s or ’60s
because they sure wouldn’t allow them these days. In one experiment,
the show’s host burned off wall paper using an ultrasonic “caanon.”
In another show he did a funky experiment involving radioactivity. A cool show; an intresting book. Pity we live in such dull and “safe”
times. ;-)
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What a blast from the past. Looking at that book wakens my nostalgia.
I am a retired chemist and as a kid I had a chemistry lab at home. Went on to become a chemist, not the pharmacy kind, but the mixing stinking chemicals kind.
Thanks for the links.
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all the links are down
Thanks for the heads up. Both the cached and scribd links should work now.