I have many hobbies and interests. Electronics, computers (vintage and new), engineering, wood work (which I’m terrible at), anything science and chemistry in particular.

Like many a young person, I really wanted a chemistry set. I wanted to make smoke bombs, stink bombs, blow stuff up, showers of exciting sparks and possibly invent a new life form; ok so that’s biology but you get the idea.

Over the years of my youth I received several chemistry sets; each one usually being larger than the previous, and other that setting light to a small piece of magnesium ribbon, never really got to do any of the above exciting things. As it happens, I really enjoyed using these sets and they set me up well for later years when I would study chemistry at school and those skills have been useful many times in adult life.

The thing is that I used to see adverts, or the actual chemistry sets in the large stores, so close I could touch them, and they looked fantastic.

Come on, who doesn’t want a chemistry set like this. Bunsen burner, tripod stand, a spirit burner (this should have been a red flag as who has a Bunsen burner AND a spirit burner), conical (Erlenmeyer) flask, beakers… you could rule the world with a chemistry set like this. Ok, so I would have needed to wear a shirt and tie and a pair of cufflinks and probably cut my hair, but that would have been a small price to pay for a chemistry set like that.

Of course, the reality in those days of no advertising standards was somewhat less…. grand.

The above pictures are of the same chemistry set 🙁 In case your wondering, there is no second tray under the first containing all the good stuff. What you see, is what you get.

Likewise there was a misconception held by parents that giving their child a chemistry set was a sure way to either burn the house down, blow up the grandparents or get your child on a terrorist watch list – the box lid view of the world. The reality (based on what you got inside the kit) was that other than maybe staining the carpet, or a mild case of a stomach upset as your cherub decided to see what things taste like, your beloved offspring was pretty safe for the most part. I suppose it’s possible to still burn the place down with the spirit burner, and as it happens I had a pretty good go at that, though I swear it wasn’t my fault. These kits were, by pretty much any standard, safe. Too darn safe if you ask me.

The above kits are from the 1960’s I believe and I’m led to understand that earlier chemistry sets were “more interesting” but not much.

For interest, once “advertising standards” became a thing, the above kit was still available but with a new box lid.

I have a feeling the new box cover would have have helped to calm the fears of many a nervous parent. It would certainly have calmed my fears that I didn’t need to wear a shirt and tie.

For full disclosure at this point, I never had a Merit chemistry set. My parents opted for Thomas Salter sets and I was perfectly happy with them. I’m guessing they were all basically the same with similar experiments, after all, how many experiments can you do with baking soda and a piece of litmus paper.

By now you should be wondering why I’m going on about all this nostalgia and wandering down memory lane. Well, I was talking with my friend the other day, yes I do have one, who we shall call Rod; because that’s his name, and he mentioned the chemistry set story about always wanting one and what he eventually got was an excellent microscope kit, which was great, but he still couldn’t blow stuff up. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that even with a good chemistry set, his chances of world domination were still pretty limited. But, this got me thinking. Maybe for a retirement present I could find a chemistry set available when he was young and restore it. I’ve purchased a couple of Merit chemistry sets and managed to cobble one complete set together, and with ChatGPTs help, I’ve managed to source all replacement chemicals and some other bits and bobs.

However, I had a conversation with AI about kids and chemistry sets and it basically confirmed what I already knew; chemistry sets were, and are, basically safe. It then suggested we would add a couple of “more exciting” experiments to the Merit kit to make things more interesting.

We went around the houses a bit at this point and I decided it wasn’t feasible as there’s just no room in the basic set to fit anything else in the box. I didn’t want to remove items as I still want it to be possible to perform all the original (if not lame) experiments.

So I’m going to build a second “Adult” chemistry set. He can keep the original one and just look at it from time to time to scratch that nostalgia itch thing, but it will be complete and useable if he ways, but, he will be able to also play with the “Adult” one. I’m hoping for at least one experiment where running for cover is required.

Building a new kit does however present some issues.

Believe it or not, the biggest issue is how far to take this. I can think of quite a long list of exciting things that could be done, but you have to draw the line somewhere. Packaging everything is going to be a challenge and I’d still like it to look and feel like a chemistry set… just a big persons chemistry set.

I’ve got some ideas and, no pun intended, I need to experiment a bit before I make any final decisions. More soon… I hope.